In the early spring in south Texas whenever my family and I go to visit relatives in Crockett we notice many huge fields that have been freshly plowed. As we drove by these plowed fields, I noticed how neatly rowed each of the many plowed rows were.

As this sight went by, Jesus’ words came to mind, “No man(person) having put his hand to the plough(plow), and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God,” (Luke 9:62). No one means none. Every individual that begans to do kingdom work and looks backwards is not qualified for the kingdom.

It is normal to look where you are going. Looking backwards while trying to walk forward is not normal. Any person that regularly looks behind while walking or driving forward is bound to have a bad accident.

In Luke 9:61, there is a record of a young man that came to Christ saying, “Lord, I will follow you: but let me first go bid them farewell, who are at home at my house.” Jesus’ reply may seem harsh when he told the man that anyone looking back was not fit for the kingdom of God.

Jesus’ answer might appear insensitive, but actually it was not. Jesus uses this time to teach all who hear this as a very important principle to those who are following Him. Once a person has given their life to Christ, they cannot go back to their former way of living.

God has a plan for our lives that does not include looking back at past mistakes. Jesus is telling us not to live our life looking backwards. He never wants us to focus on the past failures, because it will effect the present things we are doing. It is abnormal to drive, run, walk or anything while looking backwards.

If anyone is in Christ, they are new creatures and old things passed away and new things have come,(2 Corinthians 5:17). God is telling us to stop living in the past. We are now new in Christ. Stop living for what happened yesterday and a mouth ago and years past. Live for Him now in the present.

I realized while driving by these fields, how perfectly straight the rows were plowed. If the farmer, while plowing, looked back there would be a terrible effect on the end result of the whole field. The only possible way the field could have been done right was by facing forward and not backwards.

How do you live? Are you living life focusing all your attention in the present? Or are you looking back? Do as our Lord suggest by looking forward which means the present and the future. Look forward to tomorrow because you know the Savior is with you right now.

The only way to live a righteous life is by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Hosea has asked Godly people to live right. Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord; Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”

Abraham Lincoln once said, “the best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”

A church sets up a special wall at the back of the church full of memorial plagues. A daddy listens to his son’s question, “Daddy what’s that?” said the little boy looking back from the pews at the memorial plagues at the back of the church on the wall.
“That’s in memory of all the brave men and women who died in the services,” the father answered. The little boy scanned the long list of names and asked, “Did they die in the morning or evening services?”

We should be careful not to be found looking back and responding to our past. We should look to the scriptures which point to Christ Jesus and His work on the cross. Trust in Christ’s death, burial, and ressurrection for the pardon of our sin. Christians should be looking forward not backwards.