Chosen Grace

Happy December everyone! While the month is halfway gone, I want to celebrate all of you because we made it!! Be blessed as this month continues. Ok, now on to the last blog post of 2021 🙂

I have a confession to make…

I love buying new shoes.

In fact, it has unintentionally become a habit of mine as the last half of the year has been coming and going. I’ve found myself ordering sandals, clogs, and sneakers. Now I didn’t mean for my love of shoes to become a habit- but it has.

The one thing I’ve realized, though, is that when the new shoes come- I have to make room for them. That means- some shoes that I’ve had for years have to be thrown in the trash.

Now while me throwing away these shoes seems like common sense, it’s hard to do. Some pairs of shoes have been with me through thick and thin. Others have been worn down to the soles. And the hardest ones to throw away are the ones that just so happen to make every outfit I have pop.

In any case-the, one thing God has shown me is that before the new comes in-the old must go.

And while some of you may not be struggling with a shoe problem, there are some things that we must let go of. Before God can allow a new thing to enter our lives, we must take some old things to the trash.

As I pondered on this, God led me to a family that was caught up in the past:

“With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” -Genesis 19:15-17, NIV

Before we get into the meat of the scriptures above, we must get into the backstory. Just one chapter before (Genesis 18), Abraham had interceded for his nephew Lot. This intercession came because God said that he was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the place where Lot was residing. And because of Abraham’s faithfulness- God sent two angels down to rescue Lot from those wicked cities

But things didn’t just go as planned for the angels. Instead of simply getting Lot and dipping out, they ran into some trouble. Some men in the town wanted to do some unmentionable things to the angels. And when Lot tried to intervene, the townsmen threatened to harm him.

And that is where the Scriptures above come in. Here we find Lot being urged by the angels to leave before the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah before they were to be destroyed.

The interesting thing about these scriptures is that verse 16 says that Lot lingered. And while we aren’t Lot- sometimes we can linger as well.

There are times where we can linger in a place that does not serve us anymore. Sometimes we hesitate to move from a place because it is filled with comfortableness.

However- being comfortable isn’t a dangerous thing. The dangerous thing about being in your comfortableness is when you look back. We see this in verse 26:

“But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

When Lot and his family were fleeing, his wife looked back at the city and immediately became a pillar of salt.

The pillar of salt represents a stagnant place. A place of unmoving, staleness, and basicness. This is what happens when we continue to look back at those things that God is moving us from.

While we may not become stagnant or unmoving in the physical sense, we can definitely become that way mentally, physically, or spiritually.

To be transparent with you all this happened to me recently. I found myself looking back at some things that I used to do. And just like Lot’s wife- I ended up getting stuck there for a while.

But- God being merciful and graceful- came and surrounded me. He quickly helped me to see that where I was and what I was doing- wasn’t where He wanted me to be.

God came and made me unstuck. And I haven’t looked back since.

But maybe you reading this may be in a stuck place. And if you’re considering whether that’s you or not, think about these questions:

Have you been doing something you know you shouldn’t? Are you hanging around old friends that don’t serve you in this new season? Maybe you even need to throw away some old clothes that just don’t fit you anymore.

Whatever the case- I encourage you to not look back. God has already promised you and I hope and a future, so there is no good thing that our past has for us.

As we close this blog post, I challenge you to let go of those things God is calling you to. As 2022 comes full swing, I challenge you to let go of those people, habits, and things that aren’t pushing you to your full potential.

I know I am. Let’s go on this journey together.

With a love for letting go and moving forward,

Malaysia 🙂

P.S: As God was speaking to me about this blog post, He reminded me of a blog post that my friend Miranda wrote entitled Worn Out Clothes. And I tell you, this truly confirmed to me everything I’d been feeling about my own life. Hopefully, it speaks to yours as well.