Matthew prophecies: don’t waste your life! (Genesis 19:14-26, Luke 17:32-33, Matthew 16:21-27)

"But he (Lot) lingered; so the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city." (Genesis 19:16) They all lingered. Lot and family are the righteous ones Abraham prayed for God to spare. So the messengers from God grabbed them by the hands and ran them out of Sodom. It’s one thing to linger, we all are prone to linger and languish in the world, that’s why we need the hand of God to save us. But it is something else to look back. To rivet you heart in the world after having tasted His grace is not normal for the believer. Imediately after Jesus said, "Remember Lot’s wife.” He said, “Whoever seeks to preserve his soul-life will lose it, and whoever loses it will preserve it alive." (Luke 17:32-33) . Jesus said the same thing to Peter when he sought to discourage the Lord from going to the cross. He said to Peter, get behind me, Satan! Any attempt to live for this world is to merge with the thoughts of the demons. The life of Christ in you demands death to the self, a crucifixion. This is a hard word, it is a narrow way, but this is what it means to lose your soul life. With Christ in your spirit the soul now has purpose. Your soul is the very conduit from which his life flows. The River in you is meant to erupt from the soul. Therefore what we want, what we think, what we feel must die that this life might live. The outer man (soul) broken so the inner man (Christ) can flow! This should be the normal Christian life. This is why we need to remember Lots wife. She reminds us not to live for this age. What a waste to have His life, His fullness in us, yet allow our soul to be filled up with ourself and this age. That’s not what your soul was made for! Don’t preserve it, lose it, lose it for Jesus Christ that he might live out of it. Amen!