Life Forevermore

August 14

“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.

“But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul,” Hebrews 10:39.

The looking back depicted in these verses is not reflecting to evaluate the progress made since one decided to leave the world to embrace the Kingdom of Christ. It is rather the sentiment of Lot's wife, who looked back with longing for what she had left. Rather than being grateful for the Lord’s deliverance from the sin-sick city from which she was fleeing, she yearned after the temporal trappings she had to leave behind. Her looking back revealed that her heart remained in Sodom.

People of God are required to look toward an awesome vision of future glory in the presence of the Lord and to desire the eternal above the temporal. Abraham is a clear example of a man who was willing to forsake all he had in order to move toward the will of God for his life. Abraham looked for a city built by God, leaving his family, his inheritance, his homeland behind without ever looking back.

Hebrews 11:8-10 tells us, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Each of us must examine our own heart to discover our true self, the self who lives behind the facade of church attendance and communal worship. Are we like Lot’s wife who looked back with longing at what she left behind in Sodom? Or are we like Abraham who looked forward to living closer to and serving God more fully?

May each of us be found in the center of the will of our Savior. May our love for Him go far beyond the external--far beyond the communal worship and collective praise to an inner devotion; for in the center of His will, in the hollow of His hand will be found our life forevermore.