No Looking Back

"And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

Hebrews 11:15-16

Abraham was a man God called out of his own country as he walked by faith, not by sight.  He had no problems with giving Lot first choice of the land.  While Lot lifted and fixed his eyes upon the lush greenery towards Sodom, Abraham only looked to God for security, provision, and life.  Abraham did not continually remind himself of the country God brought him out of.  Should he have done so, the writer of Hebrews tells us he would have had opportunity to return.  But Abraham desired more than land:  he longed for the presence of God in a heavenly country,

As I was growing up, one of the songs I remember often sung at baptisms goes, "I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back."  The writer of Hebrews in the next chapter clearly states where our eyes ought to be focused.  Hebrews 12:1-2 reads, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  I am typically mindful of whatever I set before my eyes.  If my eyes are watching a football game, my mind is also involved in thinking about it.  Where the eyes go, the mind follows.  It is for this reason we are to lay aside every hindrance, repent of all sin, and then look to Christ alone as our example and King.

Throughout scripture the correlation between eyes and the mind is clear.  Should Abraham have looked back with longing to his home city, it showed some of his heart remained there.  When Lot and his family escaped from Sodom, they were told not to look back upon the destruction of the city.  Genesis 19:26 tells us, "But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."  Looking back cost Lot's wife her life.  Jesus says in Luke 9:62, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."  A man who looks back cannot plow straight.  His eyes are to be focused straight ahead, on his present task.  God may not have called you out of your country, but He has certainly called you out of your old life.  If we find ourselves looking back to the old life with longing or deep regret we will not advance or mature in our walk with Christ.  That is why Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  Paul refused to allow past apparent successes or failures distract him from pressing forward in the call God had upon his life.

Instead of wallowing in thoughts of the past or becoming lost in the future, let us fix our eyes, minds, and hearts upon Jesus Christ.  If we will be fit for heaven, we must put our hand to the plow without looking back.  As the old song says, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."