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Today we are going back to our story in Genesis. Please read Genesis 19:12-17.
The angels had a reason for Lot and his family to not look back. It was for their protection! Since this study is primarily about sexuality, when dealing with someone who is trying to “flee” sexual temptation, the pull towards the ungodly relationship is like a magnetic force. It feels like you have an unseen force pulling you back. Remember, feelings are just that. They are not always correct. We are wise to go on what we know rather than on what we feel. My feelings have proven to be wrong too many times for me to follow them anymore! I know I said once before that our feelings can be our worst enemy. When we choose to walk in our feelings, we are left extremely vulnerable to seduction. Women tend to act on what they feel. If we “feel” unloved at home and “feel” someone else can love us better, we are more than likely going to make choices based on those feelings. Feelings are not to be trusted. They are manipulating and the enemy knows that. He uses our feelings against us!
I can tell you that from my own life there was a time when I turned from a sinful relationship and the temptation to “look” back was so incredibly strong. I can remember trying to flee out of my own strength and failed each time. My feelings would get the best of me and I would return to what “felt” comfortable. I had to resist listening to my feelings and choose to follow God’s ways. The period after leaving this relationship was literally like coming off of a drug. The withdrawal symptoms were horrendous. I had never felt so unhealthy in all of my life. You see, we buy a lie from the enemy that flirting with sin will not hurt us. We believe the lie that we won’t fall into the sin. After all, we can handle our fleshly temptations and are not capable of falling, right? Wrong!
In what ways can you relate?
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Many times women who have father wounds or women who have been sexually abused tend to fall for these lies more so than the woman who does not have those wounds. They are wounded and looking for something to soothe the pain. Assuming the wound was never healed, they go around, not even aware of it, trying to find someone or something to soothe the wound, perhaps to numb the pain. Satan is having a field day with these women. They believe a man other than their husband is going to love them like no one else ever has. They believe this man’s love is enough to fulfill them. Unfortunately, once they buy into the lie, Satan unveils his mask. Usually, the man never had any intentions of staying with her. He uses “love” to get sex and to meet his own selfish needs. In an extramarital relationship, once the light is shed, he usually acts cowardly and flees. She is left feeling even more emotionally alone and worse than before. Satan’s plan all along was to get her to fall for his trap through a premarital or extramarital relationship and then to wreck havoc on her! Remember, the Bible says Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.
We also buy into the lie that a man can fulfill that emptiness the little girl within us deeply craves. Don’t fall for it! It’s a lie. When I think back to the time when I was fleeing an ungodly relationship, I was so desperate to get through withdraw that I was tempted to numb the pain with anything I could get my hands on. The feelings were overwhelming. Luckily, God placed a wonderful counselor in my life who taught me that I could not walk in unity with my feelings anymore. She taught me that this may be my last chance to get things right before my family would be swept away from me. She encouraged me with tough love to grasp hold of God with everything I had and to keep my eyes on him rather than the voice of drugs or alcohol calling out to me, tempting me to numb my pain. She encouraged me to walk through the pain without taking my eyes off my one true Healer.
Have you ever been in a situation where some kind of sin had such a tight grip on you that when you tried to turn from it, the temptations to go back were overwhelming? What was that like for you?
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I believe God truly desires to come to our aid when we recognize our sin and want to repent. Proverbs 3:6 says, “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
How can you bring that scripture to life to someone who is in a pit of sin and wants to change her ways?
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We can show them that it is a promise from God that He will make their path straight when they cry out to Him. God’s word tells us that His Word never returns void. That means it’s always “doing” something and will produce an end product.
I know for me, I began to cry out to Him in every area of my life. I asked Him to change my heart, my mind, my friendships, my every being! I grew sick and tired of being sick and tired which made me desperate to understand why I fell into the same old patterns of sin. When I cried out to Him, it was then that I heard His voice within whisper, “I came to help you clean up this mess, dear one. You don’t have to do it alone. I know how devastated you feel. You were lost, but now you are found. Don’t you know that I came to seek and save what was lost? Don’t you know that I specialize in cleaning up my children’s messes?”
Have you ever experienced your God as one who cleans up your mess? Describe a time in your life when He did.
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What a precious father we have that while we were still sinners, he died for us. And not only did he die for us, he came to save us from our sins. Your Father will never leave you nor forsake you, no matter what kind of sin you should find yourself in. Don’t ever let someone tell you that you have gone too far. There is not a “too far” with God. He will never desert you.
Have you ever been at a place in your life where you felt that you had separated yourself from God for good? Why did you feel that way?
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Please read Romans 8:38 with me. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Sisters, let that soak in. Nothing can separate you from his love. Absolutely nothing.
Let’s use Lots’ wife as an example to challenge us to stop looking back at old, enticing sin when we need to look forward.
Please read Philippians 3:13. “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining on toward what is ahead.” How does this verse speak to you today?
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I think this verse is the exact prescription for helping someone who continues to fall back into the same vicious cycle of sin. Paul is admitting here that he has not necessarily accomplished the “not looking back” part, but he is striving to. I believe that if it is our desire to move forward, leaving what is behind us, sinfully speaking, that is all we need to get started. That desire gives God something to work with.
I can just hear the Father now saying, “My child, your desire to want to change and move forward gives me something to work with now. Before, I couldn’t because you didn’t desire to have my help. I would be honored to help you. That is what I am here for.”
Now that we understand the significance in carefully choosing where we place ourselves, and we see the importance in not looking back, we will take a look at how holding on to past emotional wounds can leave us vulnerable.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we ask you to begin to make us aware when we are trekking towards anything that is not of you. Give us spiritual eyes to see what is of you and what is of darkness. Let no part of darkness come near us, Father. Begin to show us any area of our lives that are not protected against the evil one. Thank you for your word and may we be blessed by your truths.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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