Genesis 19:15-26 (NIV) 15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,b please! 19 Yourc servant has found favor in yourd eyes, and youe have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.f)
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
New year comes and no doubt most of us have made different kinds of resolutions. Some resolve to loose weight, quit smoking while others resolve to get out of debt or promise to spend more time with family and friends. Nothing wrong with these as a matter of fact. Unfortunately, there are some of us, or even all of us have gone through episodes of regrets wallowing in self pity, wondering what could have been or what might have been if only... We are sometimes guilty of living in the past, recalling how happy we were those days and instead of facing the here and now we try to achieve the then and before trying to replicate that same moment so we could relive that same old feeling. Like most of us we get stuck. The same is true with sin, sure enough, we just can't stop committing the same mistake over and over again. Thus, we become a slave to it.
In the bible it says...
Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NIV)10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
It was never God's desire for us to live in the past nor to be a slave to sin. For misery and destruction accompany both. Just like Lot's wife, it should never have come to it if she never have looked back. To what reason? Did she loved that place too much or was she too attached that in her mind she could not accept its destruction? Did she not trust God that there was something better for them to dwell in?
God intended for us to live a fruitful life.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Let us not live in the past. Indeed, there were good and difficult times. But instead of looking back by burying ourselves into it, we should remember and reflect God's goodness and graciousness through it all. If it is that sin that we keep going back to, let us start resolving to sincerely repent and ask God for his help and intervention through His Holy Spirit. There is no way for us to do this alone but through constant prayer in humility before God, we will live the life God intended for us to live.
