Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the burning city of Sodom. (Genesis 18:26)
No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the reign of God. (Luke 9:62)
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Let it go.
God's mercy has allowed me a new life and I cannot desire to go back to what I left.
Each time I walked into the confessional and reconciled with God, He erased sins of my past that threatened to plague me for the rest of my life. The day that I decided I wanted to give Jesus my heart and change my life, I chose a different way of being...a different way of speaking, of acting, of loving.
I looked at the cross and I said I would follow. I said I would want to be there...right there with Him.
Why?
Because I knew that it didn't end on Calvary.
If I only think about the suffering, I can't possibly want that for the sake of suffering alone. But if I think about my Lord and the heartache He experienced when his friends abandoned Him...if I think about the victory that came three days later after all the despair, it makes the suffering worth it.
It all comes back to one word.
HOPE.
We hope for things to get better. We hope that we won't make the same mistakes again. We hope that when temptations and trials do come in the future, we'll be able to face them with more wisdom and courage than we did in the past.
To hope is to persevere...to NOT GIVE UP...to have faith that God is there with us so much more than we are ever aware of Him...and ever-present not just for us but for everyone that we pray for, for everyone that He ever loved into creation.
So I release all my regrets...all of the guilt that has weighed me down...all of the pain that has imprisoned me.
I've learned from it all.
But I no longer need to look back. What's done is done. That's not me anymore.
Please God that my eyes will be set on the horizon, but may my feet be firmly planted when I stop to appreciate everything that I have today.
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