Don’t look back | Pastor Mike Saenz

Devotional

Day 1: Resistance Bands Holding Back Your Spiritual Leap

The Wildcat machine’s resistance bands become a vivid picture of unseen burdens. Just as physical restraints limit vertical leaps, unresolved regrets or unhealed wounds sabotage spiritual momentum. These weights may not be sinful, but they anchor believers to seasons God has closed. Like Paul’s admission of imperfection, the call isn’t to erase history but to refuse letting it steer. Forward motion requires naming what tethers us to yesterday’s struggles. [33:56]

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:13-14, ESV)

Reflection: What “resistance band” have you tolerated in your life that’s not inherently wrong, but keeps you from jumping higher? How might releasing it create space for God’s next assignment?

Day 2: Rearview Mirrors Were Never Meant for Steering

A driver fixated on the rearview mirror inevitably crashes. Similarly, believers often navigate life dominated by past failures or glories rather than God’s unfolding path. The windshield of faith requires releasing both trauma and nostalgia that shrink future vision. Like Israel’s wilderness journey, survival depends on trusting new mercies over rehearsing old stories. [36:13]

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
(Isaiah 43:18-19, ESV)

Reflection: What specific memory plays on mental repeat, shrinking your capacity to notice God’s “new thing”? What one action could help you shift focus from rearview to windshield today?

Day 3: Salt-Stiffened Necks and Unfinished Escapes

Lot’s wife didn’t merely glance backward—her neck froze mid-turn, symbolizing divided allegiance. Her tragedy warns against partial obedience dressed as curiosity. Like gym members clinging to old weights while reaching for new equipment, many believers want freedom without releasing what familiarizes their grip. True escape requires surrendering both feet and gaze. [52:00]

But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
(Genesis 19:26, ESV)

Reflection: What doomed city still tempts your backward glance through nostalgia or unresolved pain? What practical step could symbolically “face you forward” this week?

Day 4: Overpacked Suitcases for Promised Land Journeys

Airline weight limits mirror spiritual realities: we cannot haul every experience into new seasons. Unforgiveness and old identities act like excess baggage God never required for the trip. Like travelers forced to choose between souvenirs and essentials, believers must audit what’s worth carrying versus what blocks kingdom mobility. [47:07]

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
(Hebrews 12:1, ESV)

Reflection: What emotional or relational “item” have you overpacked into this season? How might its weight be slowing your race?

Day 5: New Wineskins Demand Released Fists

Clenched fists cannot receive gifts. Similarly, believers clinging to past labels or disappointments miss fresh anointings. Paul’s radical identity shift—from persecutor to apostle—models releasing who we were to embrace who Christ says we are. Resurrection life flows through open hands, not museum-like grips on yesterday’s artifacts. [01:00:58]

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
(2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

Reflection: What expired “old creation” label still sticks to your soul? How might speaking your new name aloud today shift your spiritual posture?

Sermon Summary

The question is simple: what is still being carried that God never asked anyone to carry? The next step requires more than knowing where someone is spiritually. The next step also requires leaving behind what keeps a person tied to the last season. The resistance-band picture shows how a person can want to leap higher while something from the past keeps pulling them down.

Paul, in Philippians 3, admits that he has not arrived, but he refuses to let his past control his future. Paul does not mean that the past gets erased from memory. The past can teach a person what went wrong, what God brought them through, what needs to change, and how faithful God has been. The past, however, was never meant to become anyone’s permanent address. The rearview mirror has a purpose, but it is not the windshield.

Isaiah 43 carries the same call: “Forget all that,” because God is about to do something new. God speaks to people who are stuck replaying captivity, loss, regret, and old seasons. God makes pathways through wilderness and rivers in dry wasteland, but a heart fixed on yesterday can miss what has already begun.

Hebrews 12 distinguishes between sin and weight. Sin must be left behind because God has clearly called it sin. Weight may not look sinful, but fear, shame, bitterness, old expectations, control, other people’s opinions, and disappointment can still slow down the race. The promised land cannot hold everything that somebody insists on dragging out of the old season.

Lot’s wife shows the danger of feet leaving while the heart stays attached. God delivers Lot’s family from destruction, gives them clear instructions not to look back, and even mercifully pulls them out when they hesitate. Lot’s wife looks back because something behind her still has a hold on her heart. A person can leave an addiction, relationship, city, job, or old identity while still romanticizing it in the heart.

Christ does not call people to deny that pain happened. Christ calls people to stop giving pain the power to control where they go next. Second Corinthians 5 says that anyone in Christ is a new person, and the old life is gone. The past may explain parts of a story, but it does not get to define the ending.

God may also ask someone to leave behind a season that was good, memorable, and deeply loved. Familiar pain can feel safer than an unfamiliar future, but faith trusts that God is doing a new thing. Grace does not mean being dumb or repeatedly walking into the same wall. Grace, love, forgiveness, wisdom, and willingness make room for the next thing God has prepared.

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Key Takeaways

1. The past can teach, not lead. Paul does not pretend his past never happened, even though his past carried real guilt and damage. The past becomes dangerous when failure, regret, or loss starts naming a person more loudly than Christ does. The rearview mirror can inform the journey, but it cannot replace the windshield. [40:49]
2. Not every weight is obvious sin. Hebrews names both sin and weight because some burdens are not automatically sinful but still keep a person from running freely. Fear, shame, old expectations, and the need for control can become heavy luggage for the next season. God may be asking for surrender long before a burden looks like rebellion. [45:43]
3. Feet can leave while hearts remain. Lot’s wife physically left Sodom, but her heart was still attached to what God was destroying. A person can walk away from an old life while still longing for it, replaying it, or allowing it to shape every new decision. Freedom requires more than distance from the old place. [52:59]
4. Letting go makes room for God. God does not ask people to release the past merely so they can stand empty-handed. Obedience creates room for what God is already preparing ahead. Familiar pain may feel safer than an unfamiliar future, but faith trusts God beyond what can currently be seen. [58:07]
5. The past explains, but never defines. Christ makes a person new without pretending the old record never existed. Mistakes can become teachers without becoming chains, and pain can become part of a story without becoming its final word. A new identity in Christ calls for practical freedom from old labels.

## [60:58]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[32:22] - Leave It Behind
[33:18] - What Is Still Holding You Back?
[35:41] - The Rearview Mirror and the Windshield
[37:57] - The Past Can Teach, Not Lead
[41:49] - God Is Doing Something New
[43:58] - Sin and the Weights That Slow Us
[46:39] - What Cannot Go Into the Next Season
[48:17] - Lot’s Wife and Looking Back
[54:38] - Making Room for What Is Next
[58:43] - The Old Life Is Gone
[62:06] - Leaving Behind Even Good Seasons
[66:41] - What Must Be Let Go?
[67:33] - A Call to Take the Next Step

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Philippians 3:13-14 — “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” [38:04]
Hebrews 12:1 — “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” [44:23]
Isaiah 43:18-19 — “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am

Sermon Clips

28s

#PastIsLessonNotHome

“So your past can teach you. Right? Your past can tell you what went went wrong, what God has brought you through, what you need to change, and how faithful God has been. But your past was never designed to become your permanent address in your life. Your past is a place you can learn from, but it's a terrible place to live. So”

52s

#NotAllYouCarryIsSin

“Sin is something we should all know. Right? Sin is something that God has clearly told us to leave. Right? That's an easy one. But weight that is holding you down, it's something that may not necessarily be sinful, but it's something that keeps us from moving forward in life. So not everything that you're carrying is sin. Right? I'm not... I want us to be... And understand this this morning that just because you're not living a sinful life doesn't mean that something is not still holding you back. Still holding you back. So not everything that you could be carrying is sinful, but everything that you're carrying isn't necessarily something that God has asked you to carry right now in this season.”

34s

#LetGoNotErase

“And, again, I I I I reiterate, leaving behind... Leaving something behind doesn't mean it didn't matter. It doesn't mean it didn't hurt. You don't have to pretend like it never happened. But choosing to leave it behind, choosing to drop it, choosing to let it go means it does not have the power to control me any longer. Jesus didn't die so you could spend the rest of your life chained to what you used to be.”

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