Run for Your Life, and Do Not Look Back

Many times we start out in life, young and carefree; we have lots of dreams and ambitions…

Somewhere along the line we fall into a pit. We make wrong choices and before we know it we are caught in a web. Lies and corruption entangle our hearts and minds and evil’s bony, sharp, talons dig deep within us.

The spider weaves its web around us knowing we can never be free. The more we struggle the tighter the web becomes. The spider lurks, waiting to make his move. Its victims, unaware that the angel of death is coming for them.

Let me tell you a little story. It’s about Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Lot chose to leave the protection of Abraham and move away from the mountains to be closer to the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.

He wanted a different life. He wanted the city life. Although he still kept his religious beliefs. Maybe he thought that sin would not taint him or his family. That he could live that close to evil and it wouldn’t rub off on them. Where did the angels find Lot when they arrived? He was at the city gate. The city gate was a place of authority where all the important men gathered. He was important, or so he thought. (Read Genesis 19)

Let me back up for just a moment…

The Lord and two angels, appearing as men, were walking by Abraham’s camp when he saw them; Abraham knew immediately who they were. Bowing before them he invited them to eat and to offer them refreshments. Afterwards, the Lord stayed behind with Abraham. The two angels continued on their way.

The Lord told Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah was going to be destroyed because of the great sins that were going on there. Abraham beseeched the Lord and said, “Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Abraham interceded for the people. He asked, “What if there are fifty righteous living there, would you spare their lives and not destroy the cities? The Lord said he would not destroy them if he found fifty. Abraham must have known that there probably was not that many righteous living there so he counted down with, what about forty, and the Lord said, if forty, he wouldn’t destroy it…Abraham didn’t stop with forty, what if there are only thirty, twenty, he counted all the way to ten. Abraham said, “What if there are ten righteous?” The Lord said he would not destroy them if he found ten righteous…

But…he didn’t find ten righteous; in fact he found that the place was so corrupt that the men of the city wanted to seduce the angels… but the angels caused all the men to become blind…(Genesis 18:23-32)

God’s judgement is righteous and true. He blinds those who try to harm God’s own.

Lot, took the angels into his home and tried to protect them. Read (Genesis 19) The angels told Lot to take his family and get out of Sodom it was going to be destroyed. Lot’s sons-in-law thought it was a joke. It was no joke.

With urgency the angels told Lot you must leave now for these cities will be destroyed tonight.

The angels remembered Abraham’s plea for the righteous, and so they took Lot by the hand and his wife and two daughters and led them out of the city to a place called Zoar (which means little place), and told them to get to the mountains. To run for their lives and “DO NOT LOOK BACK!”

You can read the account in Genesis 19…

How many times do we look back over our past and wish…?

How many regrets are staring back at us as we look back?

God has said, “Do Not Look Back!”

Lot’s wife looked back and died. She no doubt, had family and friends in those cities. She grew up in the place and probably didn’t even consider what they did as wrong. They called good, evil, and evil, good, they did every evil thing that entered their minds. Sodom and Gomorrah was so vile and putrid that God took notice and destroyed it with fire and brimstone.

Abraham prayed…if not for the pleading of Abraham to the Lord…even Lot and his daughter’s would have perished.

Sin blinds…sin corrupts…sin brings death and destruction…but the prayers of a righteous man or woman, God will hear and answer.

Pray for marriages…pray for young people…pray for children and for our Nations and lands…God sees everything and he does not turn a deaf ear to the cries of the righteous. He does not wink at the acts of rebellion and corruption he sees and hears all the evil that rages. Don’t think for one second that God is not aware of what’s going on, for he sees and he cries right along with us…He will send judgement. “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord!

Pray, people of the Living God. Intercede, for God hears and he will answer.

Respect each other. Even if you don’t like someone, you still have to love them, that is, if you call yourself a child of God for God is Love!

Don’t look back at the sins of the past…not even for a second… it will destroy you…

But run to the safe haven which is in the arms of Jesus your savior…the place of safety and rest. Run even if it is a little place, for there you will be delivered.

The past can never be changed because the past is gone.

God doesn’t say he has plans to give you a past. He says, he has a plan to give you a hope and a future…

His plan came through the blood of His Son Jesus, which means Savior. And it is for all who will accept Him as Lord and Savior of their lives.

What are we saved from…? We are saved from death and destruction. We are rescued from evil. To live holy set apart lives not to see how close we can get to evil and it not affect us…but to live as far away from evil as we can possible get…even if it means to the mountains…the place where God dwells…spiritually speaking.

The Angel of the Lord is saying to you today, “Run for your lives and Do Not Look Back!

~Marla Shaw O’Neill – June 9, 2017