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You can't plow straight looking back

 On the farm there was a coveted tractor we called the "W-9." It was a beast of a machine and when started it sounded like a WWII bomber ready for take off. The rumble of the engine and straight pipe for an exhaust made it a young man's dream machine. 

 This tractor had no power steering and it took strong arms to keep it in the road. The W-9 was used for big jobs around the farm like plowing a field. I always wanted to try my hand at plowing with the W-9, but that was not my job on the farm, so I had to be content watching from the sidelines. 

 Until one day my dream came true! I was allowed to plow a section of the field and told to "keep my rows straight," which I thought to myself  "I got this!" I made my first row, then a 2nd, then things unraveled on the 3rd row. 

 The problem started as I tried to look behind me to glory in my accomplishment of plowing 2 rows, not realizing that my steering got off in front when I did. The row got crooked and every effort to look back to see if it was better just made it worse!! That lasted about 1 round and I got replaced. Back to mucking stalls and breaking horses:( 

 I never got that assignment again but learned a valuable lesson that day, you cannot plow looking back. Jesus taught the same in Luke 9:62 "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God." If you want to be useful in God's kingdom don't look back because it will mess up your rows. 

 Paul calls not looking back at our mistakes or accomplishments, "mature thinking". He admonishes us "to forget what is past and straining forward to what is ahead, I press on to win the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 314-15). Why? First, if your going to follow Jesus He is not stagnant, He is on the move with a mission. Second, you have to turn loose of what you left behind to follow Jesus, if not, then your going to have crooked rows, I.e. "double-minded." Third, you cannot change the past, good or bad, but "God can change your future." (N. Anderson)

 Where is your focus? Keep looking ahead and don't look back! God's got this!!

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