Luke 9:59-62 He said to another person, “Come, follow me.” The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.” Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.” But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
This first man wanted to wait to follow Jesus until after his father had died. The implication is that he wanted to go live with his father until his father died so that he would receive an inheritance before following Jesus. Perhaps he justified this by thinking that the inheritance could be used in ministry. But the reality is that he desired the inheritance and was allowing that inheritance to hold him back from following Jesus. Jesus was blunt with him because he needed to realize this … It was his time to make a choice … To either desire the money and stay behind or to prefer to follow Jesus and move forward in God’s will.
Still another man wanted to go back and bid farewell to those in his house first, but following Jesus is not about what was … but about what is to be. Don’t let anything hinder you from choosing to follow Jesus. If you are a Christian and you are looking back at the past, then you are probably being hindered by your own rubber necking. Christian, you will never plow a straight line if you are looking back.
P.S. – If you have never accepted Jesus and you are feeling a pull at your heart right now to receive Him, then don’t let anything hinder you from coming to Him. Simply pray. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10). Make this the day that you let go of the past and set your face toward an incredible future. Make this the day that you receive Jesus.
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