Don't Look Back

 

DON'T LOOK BACK

The Bible says if you want to live in peace and avoid anxiety you have to avoid two things and you have to pursue one thing. Simply, leave your past alone. Do you remember Lot's wife? Angels told her not to look back. And with good reason. She did not listen to them. She looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS STRANGE STORY??

When you keep looking back and dwelling on WHAT WAS, you get stuck right there- hardened- like a pillar of salt- unable to move forward. No one can change what was. No one. Leave yesterday alone! Jesus said also said, "Do not worry about tomorrow. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." Those words taken from Matthew 6:34 mean each day brings enough trouble, struggles, hardships, and challenges of it own. It is unwise and unnecessary to waste your time and energy worrying or stewing over the past.

When you live in the "what was" you get stuck.

When you add the "what if's" .. you paralyze yourself with fear before anything has even happened. The Bible records Jesus telling us over and over not to fear. 

Looking back is not healthy. It's what we call  "water under the bridge" today. After water flows under a bridge it moves on, it doesn't go back upstream. And neither should we for our own mental health! So what does GOD tell us to do to avoid stress or anxiety from past mistakes or "what-if's? THINK on what is true, what is lovely, what is good, right, pure, admirable" (Philippians 4:8) .. to stay in the moment with God, His WORD of promise, not behind you, not ahead of you, right here. And when you do that He promises to flood your heart and mind with a peace that transcends any and all understanding or logic you thought you knew. And it will persist even when facing future trials and disappointments.

So don't look back!  Don't allow the past to consume your emotions or to drag you back to what's already been. Rivers don't flow backward. Doing so will only hold your mind in fear, torment, and worry. Tell yourself, "Today I will exercise my faith by living in the moment. I will trust God. I will shift my focus to prayer and thanksgiving,  to think on good things, on what is true, what is lovely, what is just, right, pure, admirable. Knowing with certainty if Ido these things, ultimately I will receive a peace that makes no sense to the world because it is not based on the absence of trouble but on the promises of GOD when acting according to His written Word.

Until He Comes,

-Pat-