We are doing the theme on the Embrace Women's Service Prayer line called Lord Make A Way! Isn't that everyone's prayer? I know it's mine. I am in need of his daily help and direction and I am sure you are probably nodding in agreement. However, I digress from my point of this post.
The golden text we are focused on is taken from Isaiah 43:18-19
18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
God is making a way for us. He says in this text that it is a new thing that He is set to do. However, He instructed that the former things need to be put to the curb. This is the problem for many of us - me, you and Lot's wife and his children.
In Genesis 19 the bible tells us that Mrs Lot was so focused on her yesterday - she couldn't resist the temptation to look back. As a result she was iodized. To be honest I don't even know why I thought of that word. What happened was she was turned into a pillar of salt - a preservation of her past. Salt, I learnt this morning, was used to preserve meats from going back. As such this salt was such a symbol of what she wanted to preserve. Her yesterday was still her focus. Yet, God is doing a new way.
Lot's children left the place of Sodom and Gomorrah, but they were stained by it's culture. They did not leave unscathed but brought with them the stench of their yesterday. That stinking thinking and perverse nature contaminated them and led their decision to sleep with their father. Oh yes friends, they went there. Incest by choice.
They didn't perceive the new thing God wanted to do in their lives. They couldn't trust God to provide husbands for them. They wanted what they wanted and literally they sought it at any cost. Now don't throw that stone of judgement just yet. I ask you to examine your own life for just a moment. I may not have done that, but when is sin not still sin? Have I not been guilty of trying to make my own way in this journey of life? Have I not also romanticised my yesterdays to the point where I wanted to return? Have I not also committed the sin in the eyes of God? Have I not also been guilty of being faithless while I waited on the way of God?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
So, this morning's devotion has inspired me to look in the mirror. The reflection doesn't look great. However, just as God extended mercy to them, I have been given new mercies - today. Time to release the former things and instead look to God for the new thing He will do in my life.
Amen.
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