Have you ever been in a situation where you had the clear impression from the Lord that you were supposed to do something, or quit doing something, or that He seemed to be working to get you out of a pickle, but you hesitated?
Such was the case with Abraham’s nephew Lot in Genesis Chapter 19.
God had decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. Even desperate intercession by Abraham, God’s friend, could not stop it. There just were not enough righteous people to warrant a turnabout in God’s decision.
Just one problem: Lot lived there with his wife and two daughters, and he was family of God’s friend Abraham. Even though the man had made the dumb decision to settle in the area of Sodom despite its bad reputation in the area, God, in His grace, decides to add something to the two angels He assigned to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 13). They had to rescue Lot and his family first. After spending the night at Lot’s house and having to fend off attackers who wanted to do shameful things with them, they urged him first thing in the morning to take his wife and two daughters and hightail it out of the city so they wouldn’t get caught up in its destruction (verse 15).
But Lot lingered.
The two angels, loyal to their mission, literally had to grab him and drag him and his family out of the city.
Why? Lot knew it was about to be destroyed because of its wickedness. He was told he would be destroyed with it if he stayed! Did I mention he had already done one dumb thing by moving there? Is he really that dumb that he would not want to be rescued? Why would he linger?
I think it might be because he had emotional ties to the city. Or perhaps he was afraid to leave his house and the life he knew and head into the unknown – homeless and penniless. Or perhaps both. In the end, he got scared enough to remember the warning of the angels to not look back (verse 17) and flee for his life. His wife apparently wasn’t. She cast one last look back at her cozy home in the city and instantly turned into a pillar of salt (verse 26).
We may be more like Lot than we care to admit. Maybe we’d be quicker to obey without lingering or hesitating in a life-and-death situation, but when God impresses us to do something or to quit doing something we’re not supposed to do, are we prone to lingering?
Perhaps we were nurturing a sinful habit, and we feel convicted to quit it. Do we linger because we enjoyed it so much that we hate to give it up (I’ll quit tomorrow or maybe next week when I have more time…)? Has God perhaps pressed upon our soul that we are supposed to donate money to a mission, a good cause, a church project, or a person in need, but we linger because we were really hoping to buy something fun with that money? Has He prompted us to reach out to someone who is somewhat difficult to love and we hesitate because being in that person’s company is not our idea of having a good time? The list goes on.
The lingering comes from an emotional attachment to something that we need to let go of in order to be obedient to God.
It took a forceable removal by those angels to finally get Lot to obey. We don’t want to get to that point. Force always hurts in some way. Just ask a child who won’t obey and has to suffer the consequences of not doing what he knows he is supposed to do.
The moral of the Genesis story: Don’t be like Lot. Don’t linger. If you detect an unhealthy emotional attachment to what God wants you to leave behind or a barrier bigger than your will to do what He has told you to do, ask Him for help. Unlike Lot, God’s Spirit lives within you to help you overcome anything and do anything. God does not ask you to leave something behind or do something that seems beyond your emotional capacity without equipping you to do it. Here’s your proof:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” 2 Peter 1:3,4.
“All things pertaining to life and godliness.” Not some things. All things. That is huge. And it means that we mustn’t linger when God calls upon us. There is simply no excuse for procrastination. In His strength and power, we can renounce every emotional attachment, every creature comfort or comfort zone, and overcome every hesitation.
Lingering in the presence of God is good. Lingering in the presence of sin is not.