Have you ever noticed that thieves don’t break into houses to steal the paper cups, toilet paper, and Kleenex? They go for what’s valuable. They go for the jewelry and the plasma screen and all the expensive stuff. And the Bible says that Satan is a thief. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. That’s why Satan is after your life, because you’re valuable. You may not feel valuable but you are! And that’s why he’s out to destroy your life. That’s why you’ve been through what you’ve been through because you’re valuable to God.

I have learned, over the last several years, that where the devil is concerned, nobody can fight your battle for you. It’s up to you and God. I’ve also discovered that you will never outgrow warfare, you simply have to learn to fight. To me, the key word in that statement is you. You will never outgrow warfare; you will have to learn to fight. I would love it, as full of faith as my mom and dad are, if they could fight my battles for me. You know, just depend on dad to fight it for me, but I’ve learned that Satan could care less who your parents are. He could care less how many times you’ve been to church, how many books and CDs you have in your own library at home. He just doesn’t care.

He is out for your life. He’s out for your testimony, and he’s out to destroy your future. He does not want you doing what God put you on this earth to do. He will do anything to keep that from happening. And one way he does that is by keeping you tormented by your past.

I know because it’s something I’ve battled very strongly in my own life. I can’t count the nights I’ve laid in bed tormented by the pain of past experiences and the effects of choices in my life. It was affecting my life so badly that one day I clearly heard the Lord say to me, “If you choose to go back to the past I have delivered you from, your life can be summed up in one word: regret.” Wow! God is serious about us letting go of our pasts!

I heard a story about a consultant who asked people what one of the most important things in their life was. The answer he received over and over was: “I want my life to count.” He also asked their greatest fear. What he found was that most people confided that their greatest fear was that their life would be meaningless and that they would die with their potential untapped. Well, I want you to know that one of the ways that Satan can keep you from ever tapping the potential that God gave you is by keeping you locked in your past.

In Luke 17:32, there are only three words. It says, Remember Lot’s wife. The story of Lot’s wife is in Genesis 19 starting in verse 17. It says, Escape for your life, don’t look behind you. Lot and his wife were being saved from the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah. God told them one thing: Don’t look back. God just wanted to save them and take them to a new life. He had a whole new plan for them, and all He said was, “Don’t look back.”

Well, if you know the story, Lot’s wife looked back, and she turned into a pillar of salt. I heard Joyce Meyer say, “She lost her future because she looked back”. You too can lose your future by looking back. If you keep looking back at the life that God has delivered you from, you can lose your future. If you keep looking back at an old relationship that God told you get away from, you can lose your future. If you keep looking back at old friends that remind you of the drugs, the alcohol, and the partying, then you can lose your future.

When God told Lot’s wife not to look back, He was telling her that everything He had for her was ahead of her. He was telling her that He forgave her of all that stuff in the past. It was over with. Don’t even glance in that direction any more. Everything He has for you is ahead of you.

I believe that God is telling us the same thing. It’s time to get over your past. Don’t let the potential that He gave you stay untapped because of your past. God is the Great I am, not the Great I was. He’s today. Everything about Him is today and tomorrow. Let’s go somewhere. Let’s get a future and a plan. Quit looking back. Don’t destroy your future because of your past. Remember Lot’s wife. She lost her future because she looked back.