The Insight of Personal Application

During a conversation yesterday I received a good reminder I needed.  We need reminders because no matter how well we know something or are familiar with it, it can slip our mind--like the pin number to use a credit card.  When the contactless payment was permitted to reduce people touching the keypad, for months I did not have to enter my pin.  After this season finished, however, I entered a pin incorrectly because I had forgotten the correct order of the numbers.  I was able to use the card in the end but it caused a delay for myself, the cashier, and other customers to have to input the code again.  The implications of forgetting spiritual truth is far more costly than an extra 30 seconds to enter a code because the consequences can be far reaching, even for all eternity.

I was reminded of the importance to apply the things we read in the Bible (especially passages some call "stories") personally to our own lives.  We can be so caught up in the practical aspects of the historical events we can miss the spiritual and personal application.  Even simple, seemingly insignificant actions and statements can be most insightful.  Today I had such a moment after I finished washing my car.  For whatever reason, after I parked the car and went to close the garage door, I took a quick look back upon the now clean car.  I was reminded of Lot's wife who looked back to Sodom.  Whilst I know God commanded Lot and his family to leave Sodom and not look back, she did so and became a pillar of salt.

I asked myself:  why did I just look back?  I did not have a ready answer and needed to think it over.  I looked back because I like seeing a job done and there was satisfaction in seeing a dirty, dusty car become clean and shiny.  Lot's wife disobeyed God when she looked back on Sodom, and we are not expressly told from scripture why she did so.  The reality was she was looking back upon her city which was under God's judgment, and she was swiftly judged as well.  Lot's wife was never provided the opportunity to examine her heart and repent of sin, but praise the LORD we are.  There is nothing inherently sinful in looking back, but we should take the opportunity to examine our motives for looking back.  Was it pride in a job well done?  Was it a feeling of accomplishment, of superiority over others?  Was the sinful motivation to disobey God found in me in that fleeting look?

Moving beyond looking back to a city or a car, what about looking back to our past?  It is obvious there are aspects of our past which longing to return to or taking pride in would be sinful.  We have all looked back to past experiences in our lives for good or ill, and God has been gracious not to strike us down until now.  But it doesn't mean we should mistake His patient, gracious and longsuffering nature and assume looking back for us does not lead us to sin.  When we turn our eyes to Jesus, following Him in faith, we have a future which is far more glorious than the memories which fade.  To remember Lot's wife is to take heed of our own hearts, lest we disobey God by looking to the wrong things.  I do not know the heart of Lot's wife, but through personal application of scripture God provides insight and action for me to take today.