What Are You Looking For? (The Watch Letter)

LUKE 17

28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

31 In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

32 Remember Lot's wife.

33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it

Have you ever wondered, in Genesis 19, what could Lot's wife had possibly been looking for when she looked back after the Lord commanded her and her husband to flee from the area of Sodom and Gomorrah and to not turn back? The cities were in utter destruction, brimstone and fire were everywhere. There was smoke all around, just as if they were in a human-sized furnace. Why would she want to look back or go back to such a place?

Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn asked this question this week during a message. He asked what if it were something silly or replaceable like some old furniture or old kitchenware that caused her to disobey God and end up consumed into a pillar of salt?

He used this as an example of how we can be when we don't forgive or when we don't accept God's will and his word. We are always looking back at old things because we are too rebellious and set in our ways to trust God with new things and new beginnings.

Lot and his wife had new opportunities, new land, and new promises waiting for them, but disobedience and self-ambition caused them to get stuck.

For many of us, we have been stuck for a long time because of the things we keep looking back at.

As Chief Apostle Gunn said: How can we drive without wrecking if we keep looking back? The truth is we can't trust ourselves to let go of unforgiveness, the past, hurt, and things we think we are owed or should have, etc. We need the Lord to help us and direct us.

Some people would say it is stupid for a person to run back into a burning house to save a family heirloom and risk their lives, but that is what we have done every day when we refuse to move forward or refuse to let go of what God is telling us to drop. We are burnings ourselves alive because we can't trust God and ,instead, trust in the most inconsistent thing on earth - ourselves. So, because we refuse to trust God and choose our own way, we torture ourselves here on earth and can cause ourselves to be tortured after we die in hell

Lot and his wife only trusted God enough to rescue them from the mob that tried to rape and pillage their home. They trusted God enough to show them mercy when Abraham and his army previously rescued their family despite a lack of appreciation they had for Abraham. Yet they could not trust God's perfect plan to rescue them from Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, they dragged their feet, compromised, bargained, and questioned God throughout the process of their deliverance.

How many of us can say the same? Where have we not trusted God and obeyed him when he was trying to deliver us? Where have we preferred the comfort of unforgiveness, the past, sin, hurt, disappointment, and old ways over the promise, hope, and future of God?

Isaiah 43:18-19

Remember ye, not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Proverbs 4:25-27

Let thine eyes look right on, And let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: Remove thy foot from evil.

Ecclesiastes 3:6

(There's) A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away

Luke 9:59-62

And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Is what we keep looking back at or keep holding on to worth death? Spiritually or Physically? Is it worth never knowing what God has placed ahead of us?

What if Lot's wife looking back changed the trajectory of her own family? In fact, it did. After she became a pillar of salt, her husband, children, grandchildren, and future generations dealt with incest/rape, alcoholism, deceit, violence, idolatry, and much more. Read about the Moabites and Ammonites, they were enemies of God's people and are the descendants of Lot and his wife's rebellion. What if she had obeyed God?

What if she had lived and was able to intervene and help her family? So, what are you looking for, and is it worth looking back to get? And who will be hurt in the process?

Remember Lot's wife!