No Looking Back
NO LOOKING BACK
Read Luke 9:57-62.
Scott had been a Christian only a short time. His old friends kept after him to join them in doing things they used to do together.
“Scott, would you help me get my garden ready for spring planting?” asked Mr. Lockwood, Scott’s Sunday school teacher.
“Sure,” said Scott.
The next day Mr. Lockwood showed Scott how the garden tiller worked. “Start here, and don’t take your eyes off that post down there,” said Mr. Lockwood. “Make a straight row toward it. When you come back this way, you follow the furrow you’ve just made.”
Scott’s confidence began to build as row after row of neatly turned earth appeared. He was almost finished when he saw his teacher.
“Shut it off and take a break,” shouted Mr. Lockwood.
Grinning, Scott turned back to shut off the machine. To his dismay, he saw that the tiller had made a big swerve to the right while he had been looking back. Mr. Lockwood saw what had happened too. “Come and have your lemonade,” he said, “and then we’ll figure out how to straighten this last row.”
As they sat under a tree, Scott talked about the problems he was having with his old friends.
Mr. Lockwood gazed over the garden. “Looking back messes up a field, and looking back can mess up a life, too. Sometimes we have to break friendships to follow God. Don’t look back on your old life, Scott. Look to Jesus.”
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Do you have old friends who want you to join them in doing things that you know are wrong? Do those old ways seem attractive? Ask the Lord to help you not to look back.
TO MEMORIZE:
Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:62
LOOK TO JESUS.
From the book
