"A WOMAN ‘S MISTAKE...A WARNING FOR ME!"

"A weekly Devotional by Gbile Akanni" 

The conclusion of the matter of this Timely Warning is:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”Matt. 6:21 KJV

This is where the trouble is. If it were possible to keep your treasure in a place and carry your heart somewhere else, it would have been different. But no man has been able to do this. Your treasure and your heart are closely tied. It is not wrong for a man’s heart to be with his treasure. If my treasure therefore determines where my heart is, then I need to be careful where that treasure is because wherever I put it, there my heart will be.

Now Jesus said something again that jolted me so much. I had never looked at it that way before until the Holy Spirit began to show it to me that it was for this same reason that Mrs Lot could not make it to heaven..................

Lot lifted up his heart and choose Sodom and Gomorrah and left his uncle Abraham in the dry land. He saw built-up cities and went for them. As if to tell Lot that he had made a mistake, God passed him through an experience at a point. Some kings came and carried away everything in Sodom and Gomorrah including Lot, his wife and children. Lot was left empty handed over night. He cried and cried. Abraham was the one who went and fought and brought him, his children, his wife and his properties back. Lot did not learn his lesson from this. He did not know that where he was staying was a dangerous ground, a place that was already marked out for destruction. It looks to me as if it was his wife that counsel him and said, “Look let’s settle here. Though God has used your uncle to rescue us, yet we cannot afford to go back and settle with him. Besides, your uncle is always going from one place to another; we can’t be going here and there because I am not cut for that.” So they settled back in Sodom and Gomorrah.

When the Angels that God sent to Sodom got there and told Lot saying, “We are going to destroy this place tomorrow. Pack whatever you have in this city; because everything that is in this city, everything that was developed in this city, all the civilization of this city, all the investment of this city, all the factories of this city will be destroyed tomorrow. Whatever you have in this city, carry it.”

They gave him a slim opportunity to escape and a difficult task to perform. He was told to climb a hill and he was to climb it not leisurely but in haste and there was no lift. He was told to pick whatever he had in that city and escape for his life. He must have looked for things he buried under the ground. He probably needed caterpillars to uproot some of them. Lot, as a man, may have just picked one dress and one bag which he was able to carry and told his two daughters to move. He must have called the wife also and said, “Let’s go.” Meanwhile the Angels were waiting for him. I imagine his wife saying, “What do we pick? Let’s pick this, let’s pick that.” Then the husband said, “How can we carry this? It is heavy; have you forgotten that we are going to climb a mountain?” the wife said, “But excuse me, when we get there, what shall we use to cook if we don’t carry this?”

Do you remember what happens whenever you are to travel with your wife? She will say, “We have not taken this, we have to carry that.” It is natural with many women. Lot’s wife must have picked many things. When they were about to carry them, they were too heavy. Lot said, “Look madam, let’s leave this thing. Is life not better than property?” She said, “Well, life is better than property but I need these things there.” The reason is: where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Mrs Lot couldn’t look up to heaven because she had nothing to look forward to there. There are some people who won’t go to heaven because they don’t have anything there. Those who will go to heaven, the Bible say they look forward to it. If there is nothing to look up to in heaven, what is the excitement about going there? Let me tell you something. There is an attraction that takes someone to heaven and when there is nothing that you are looking up to there, sorry, you won’t make it, even if you are a believer. Some Christians will not make it. I am telling you this frankly because the word of God remains forever.

While Lot was climbing and running, the Bible say (in Genesis 19:26) that his wife looked back from behind him. It pains me so much that the husband thought she was following him, not knowing that she had looked back from behind him. Some pastors think that their members are following them to heaven, not knowing that their key members have looked back from behind them. When people look back, you are not likely to know. Many wives have looked back from behind their husband. Many children have looked back from behind their parent. You thought they are going to heaven with you, but they have looked back from behind you.

As soon as Lot’s wife looked back, she became a pillar of salt. The way the Bible describes it, made me to be so afraid that Lot did not discover that his wife had looked back until they got to their destination. They instruction was, “move, don’t look back.” Lot was going, his daughters were also going. They believed that Mummy was also following. It was when they got to the place and settled down that they asked, “Where is Mummy? Where is my wife?” What a pity! She had looked back from behind them. She missed the final destination. She was saved from the fire of Sodom but she never got to the final destination. Brother, have you looked back from behind your leaders? Madam, have you looked back from behind your husband? This was how Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt.

“In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife.”
Luke 17:31-32 KJV

What made Lot’s wife to become a pillar of salt is most likely that she remembered her stuff that she left behind in Sodom. Where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Remember Lot’s wife. If your treasure is in rese arch or business, your heart is there also even now. Nothing else moves you except that. If this is the case, how will one invest his life to possess the eternal treasure in heaven? First and foremost, your heart must go over there. Your heart, focus and emphasis must go over there so that you can send treasures there.

Dear Lord, I have but only one opportunity to live here on earth. Help me to give heed to what you are saying here to me. Don’t let me make an experiment with my life, it is too costly. I have only one life to live and once it is over, there’s no opportunity to remedy even my mistakes! Help my heart always to remember Lot’s wife.