Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Part 1

This entry was posted on 04-20-2009 and is filed under FAITH.

"If they had been thinking of the country they had left, the would have had opportunity to return" (Heb. 11:15 NIV).

People of faith have the ability to move forward and not dwell on the past or what they have left behind. That's what our text is telling us today. Abraham never looked back once he left Ur, even though he did not know where he was going (v. 8). Lot's wife, on the other hand, looked back and we all know what happened to her. In my 63 years of life I have found it difficult not to think of the town and church and people I have left behind when I have made a move. Sometimes I wanted to turn around and head back. Do you remember when Israel left Egypt? It wasn't long until some of them wanted to return. I guess they had forgotten about all those years spent in hard labor.

Faith looks ahead and never looks back. Faith is all about the future, not the past. It is about promises of thing ahead, not memories of past performances. Some of the Hebrew Christians were thinking about what they had left behind - friends, heritage, things that were familiar. The writer wants them to rather focus on better things, a better country, a better land. If we are always thinking about what we have left behind us it will be difficult to forge ahead in faith to that which lies before us. Looking back makes us want to go back. So we must fix our eyes on Jesus and follow His leading and call. In faith we go forward.

Hymn: "Sweetly the tones are falling: 'Open the door for Me!' If thou wilt heed My calling, I will abide with thee." (Mary Slade)