No turning back...

Luke 9:62 "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

We all go through times and seasons where we get frustrated. Perhaps finances are real tight. Perhaps time for leisure and relaxation is getting less and less. Perhaps personal struggles wax great in our heart, causing doubt to creep in. I don't know how your heart is right at this moment, but sometimes we just get .... well .... "fed up".
Our walk with the Lord can sometimes get that way. Read Jeremiah 20 and you will see a Prophet of the Living God getting frustrated.
Jeremiah 20:7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.

If even the prophet Jeremiah can get to this point, certainly we can in our walk with the Lord.

I have had a very interesting week. I have had two ministry "firsts" that are .... well .... not the "firsts" that you deisre to experience. To be honest, they were painful experiences. Couple that with true financial pressure, pressures of business, pressures of home life. To be honest, the temptation to look back gets strong at times. It is so easy to say "remember when we could just buy what we wanted. Remember when we had "X" amount of money in the bank. Remember when these events didn't strike so close to home...." You get the picture. You get tempted to look back.

Well, God has a word for this concept of looking back: sin. It is sin to look back at our old lives when God has put us on a new path. When our hands have been placed "on the plough", there is NO looking back. Remember what happened to Lot's wife when she looked back? She became the worlds biggest salt-lick.

Let's be like Daniel and purpose in our heart not to look back. There are lessons to be learned from these painful experiences in life. There are lessons to be learned from the pressures that we face. Perhaps we place too much emphasis on what our hands can "earn" instead of trusting the Lord to provide? I don't know what your struggle is, but we must learn from them. Don't look back.

The thought reminds me of that old song "I have decided to follow Jesus"

I have decided to follow Jesus.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back, no turning back.

The world behind me, the cross before me.
The world behind me, the cross before me.
Thw world behind me, the cross before me.
No turning back, no turning back.

Friend, if you are serving the Lord, don't look back. Press forward. Keep on plowing for Jesus.
If you are not serving the Lord, why not?

Serve the Lord. Put your hands to the plough and don't look back.