There are times we shouldn’t look back.
Yesterday is an old film set. So is the day before that and the day before that one.
Each day the cast is released, the set is broken down, and the film is processed and “in the can,” so to speak.
To pull those film cannisters from the shelf and replay them only stirs up the emotions all over again.
Yet—and this is the important part—we can’t reshoot any of those scenes from the past. They are wrapped and in the can. Just celluloid and light shining onto a screen. Today is the only film set we are on. It’s the only one we can participate in, change, and improve (or wreck, if we’re careless).
Yet Chronicles 16:11-12 says to do that very thing:
“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.”
God is telling us to pull down the old films, set them into the projector, and hit the play button. To look back on him, so to speak.
Here’s the difference: We must be selective in what we pull from the shelf. We must ask ourselves, “Does this memory reveal the wonders of God? Does it remind us of a miracle he has performed? Does it embolden our walk with Christ through his divine judgments over the choices we’ve made, whether good or bad?”
Lot’s wife looked back at the destruction of Sodom and remembered her life fondly, even though Sodom had tried to steal her family and faith from her. She was stuck in the past and couldn’t move forward into God’s new thing.
Let’s not become a pillar of salt. Rather, let’s burn with the vision of God and find in him our motivation to do greater things for Christ.
When we look back on God, he will remind us of his goodness, and we will become stronger in him.
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