Don’t Look Back
No matter how much we try, we can’t repeat history, we can’t pick up where we left off, we can’t go back and live life out differently.
We can look back on our lives and wish things had been different, but what if the life we are living today was the life we had to live to make us into who God is perfecting us to be?
My life. . . has been good overall. Sure, when the times were hard, they were HARD. . . for me. But I have been blessed beyond measure.
My life as a wife has at times been bittersweet. May I add that in ignorance and disobedience, I contributed to a lot of that bittersweetness. Noted author, Gary Thomas of “Sacred Marriage,” asks the question “What if marriage is NOT to make you happy, but to make you holy?” To put it this way, “what if the very person you are married to is exactly the person God would use to “clarify” the junk in your heart and mind, floating to the top, as butter is clarified when it is boiling. The fat floats to the top, and is scraped off.
I am thankful to the Lord for His faithfulness in my life. He continues to speak to me and show me that He is about “a work” in my life and my dear husband is part of that work.
This week, I found out that my neighbors are divorcing, another couple I know are separated, but hopeful of reconciling in their separated time. There are a handful of couples, I know, going through the same thing . . . thinking that the grass is going to be greener on the other side of the fence. These are church going people.
What is going on????
People, we are at the end of the age and the trials and tests planned for us are meant to see what we are made of. To the believers of the faith, I am speaking to.
We are more focused on being happy, than being holy. Do we even know what that means?
We all have hard times. We blame our upbringing, our past relationships, our parents,etc. We all have imperfect marriages. So what!!! Have we thought that perhaps we induced some of this hardship by making poor choices and taking our eyes of the “Author and Perfector of our faith?”
I know I am guilty, big time!!!
But I know my Redeemer lives!!! Thank You, Jesus!!!!
Romans 8:29 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” In other words, God hand picked you and I to live out the life we are living today. Does that mean He wants us in a bad marriage or an unfulfilled one? NO!!! Praise Him that He has given us free will to choose. We live out the repercussions of those choices, good or bad, for which we cannot blame God.
My feelings for those I’ve known who left, tore, ripped their families apart to fulfill their inflated idea that their new life with their new “soul mate” would be everything they had ever fantasized. But sadly, I have come to find out that their life is worse than before.
What about if there is abuse or addiction? These are extenuating circumstances, which should be addressed by one who is qualified. But as one, who grew up in an abusive home with addictions, I can say, for myself, that God has used that time in my life to strengthen me and show me that I if I keep my eyes on Him, He will get through those rough seasons.
A snippet of my past caught me recently. Well it’s more like I had pursued the past. For a split moment, I wondered . . . “what if,” all the while I was in my time in God’s Word. I believe before the thought became too nurtured, the Lord spoke to me in the verse of the day. . .
“But Jesus said to him, “no one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
Okay, there it is!!! Immediately, I was sobered up! What happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back at Sodom? She became a pillar of salt. Why? I believe she was unwilling in her heart to say goodbye to her life back in Sodom, her idea of happiness.
I am reminded of Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you DO NOT DO the THINGS that you wish.”
The bottom line. . .
I can’t go back.
And truly, I don't want to go back.
I want to go forward.
And pursue righteousness.
To Glorify the Lord in my walk and not put on a “show” when out, like the Pharisees did, but be genuine at home, whether by myself or with my family, where it counts.
I want to be fit for the kingdom of God.
.
We can look back on our lives and wish things had been different, but what if the life we are living today was the life we had to live to make us into who God is perfecting us to be?
My life. . . has been good overall. Sure, when the times were hard, they were HARD. . . for me. But I have been blessed beyond measure.
My life as a wife has at times been bittersweet. May I add that in ignorance and disobedience, I contributed to a lot of that bittersweetness. Noted author, Gary Thomas of “Sacred Marriage,” asks the question “What if marriage is NOT to make you happy, but to make you holy?” To put it this way, “what if the very person you are married to is exactly the person God would use to “clarify” the junk in your heart and mind, floating to the top, as butter is clarified when it is boiling. The fat floats to the top, and is scraped off.
I am thankful to the Lord for His faithfulness in my life. He continues to speak to me and show me that He is about “a work” in my life and my dear husband is part of that work.
This week, I found out that my neighbors are divorcing, another couple I know are separated, but hopeful of reconciling in their separated time. There are a handful of couples, I know, going through the same thing . . . thinking that the grass is going to be greener on the other side of the fence. These are church going people.
What is going on????
People, we are at the end of the age and the trials and tests planned for us are meant to see what we are made of. To the believers of the faith, I am speaking to.
We are more focused on being happy, than being holy. Do we even know what that means?
We all have hard times. We blame our upbringing, our past relationships, our parents,etc. We all have imperfect marriages. So what!!! Have we thought that perhaps we induced some of this hardship by making poor choices and taking our eyes of the “Author and Perfector of our faith?”
I know I am guilty, big time!!!
But I know my Redeemer lives!!! Thank You, Jesus!!!!
Romans 8:29 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” In other words, God hand picked you and I to live out the life we are living today. Does that mean He wants us in a bad marriage or an unfulfilled one? NO!!! Praise Him that He has given us free will to choose. We live out the repercussions of those choices, good or bad, for which we cannot blame God.
My feelings for those I’ve known who left, tore, ripped their families apart to fulfill their inflated idea that their new life with their new “soul mate” would be everything they had ever fantasized. But sadly, I have come to find out that their life is worse than before.
What about if there is abuse or addiction? These are extenuating circumstances, which should be addressed by one who is qualified. But as one, who grew up in an abusive home with addictions, I can say, for myself, that God has used that time in my life to strengthen me and show me that I if I keep my eyes on Him, He will get through those rough seasons.
A snippet of my past caught me recently. Well it’s more like I had pursued the past. For a split moment, I wondered . . . “what if,” all the while I was in my time in God’s Word. I believe before the thought became too nurtured, the Lord spoke to me in the verse of the day. . .
“But Jesus said to him, “no one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
Okay, there it is!!! Immediately, I was sobered up! What happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back at Sodom? She became a pillar of salt. Why? I believe she was unwilling in her heart to say goodbye to her life back in Sodom, her idea of happiness.
I am reminded of Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you DO NOT DO the THINGS that you wish.”
The bottom line. . .
I can’t go back.
And truly, I don't want to go back.
I want to go forward.
And pursue righteousness.
To Glorify the Lord in my walk and not put on a “show” when out, like the Pharisees did, but be genuine at home, whether by myself or with my family, where it counts.
I want to be fit for the kingdom of God.
.
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