Ok first up, I'm loving that so far this year God seems to be speaking to me through His Word abundantly. It's like I've never read some of these passages before and am like 'woah, that's so cool'! Even the smallest of verses are jumping out at me, sometimes even when the rest of the passage doesn't. Thats good right? When I ask God to speak to me He's almost like, 'I'm not saying anything till after you have read my Word'. It's like He's trying to get me into it more. Cool.
So today 2 things struck me. Gen 19v16 - Lot 'hesitated' when he was told to flee Soddom. Well yeh, wouldn't you hesitate if you were told to leave your hometown and flee, even if it was to better places!? I think it's ok to hesitate at times - God understands. We are human. He allows our will to catch up with His at times. God didn't send a lightening bolt down on Lot for hesitating. He was patient. Like He is with us. Praise the Lord. Although I do think that sometimes we need to act, rather than dilly dally - it could have bad consequences.
Secondly, I was reminded of not clinging to my past, and to the things that are behind me. Doing that could prevent me moving forward in God's will. Lot's wife looked back at the past instead of pushing forward to what is ahead, (Gen 19:26). She turned into a pillar of salt! I summed it up (with the help of the Life Application Bible) in these words which I will conclude with...
'Don't cling so much to your past that you prevent God from moving you into your future.'
Ooh, interesting! I started a small number of (very!) small group Bible study sessions last year focussing on reading large chunks of the Bible and discussing them - I've discovered so much about the stories that underpin our faith; so many things make a bit more sense now! It's easy to forget that God speaks through the Bible (I dunno if your church now is anything like Reach, but when you're surrounded by such strong prophetic voices it's easy to let the Bible lose focus).
ReplyDeleteAs for clinging to the past - that's so true. The story of the OT seems to be, over and over, Israel moving forward in God's promises, being reminded of what God had done for them, and making new starts every time they messed up.
:D thanks Rob- love your thoughts on this!
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