Now is not the time to be going backward. There is no time to reverse our direction or step back from that narrow path leading to the heavenly country. Don’t look back as Lot’s wife did. We are strangers in this country and there is no reason for us to step back and look.
Many of our brethren took that step backward. “But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” Manuscript Releases, Book 1, 107. The Lord said, “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward” (Isaiah 1:4). Terrible thought.
Do not be tempted to join the crowd that is stepping back.
“The people of God in these last days must expect to enter into the thick of the conflict; for the prophetic Word says, ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ’ (Revelation 12:17).” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, 1153.
You need to be aware that, “those who have decided to obey the commandments of God will understand by experience that they have adversaries who are controlled by a power from beneath. Such adversaries beset Christ at every step, how constantly and determinedly no human being can ever know. Christ’s disciples, like their Master, are followed by continual temptation.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 170.
Who is pursuing? “Satan hopes to lead them to sin, and cast dishonor upon God.” Ibid., 171. Don’t step back, but step fast.
“In the professedly Christian world, even in the professed churches of Christ, how few are governed by Christian principles. In business, social, domestic, even religious circles, how few make the teachings of Christ the rule of daily living. …
“Every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide. Who can doubt that satanic agencies are at work among men with increasing activity to distract and corrupt the mind, and defile and destroy the body?” The Ministry of Healing, 142, 143. They have stepped back.
We must step fast. “Said the angel, Deny self; ‘ye must step fast.’ Some of us have had time to get the truth and to advance step by step, and every step we have taken has given us strength to take the next. But now time is almost finished, and what we have been years learning, they will have to learn in a few months. They will also have much to unlearn and much to learn again. …” Early Writings, 67.
Heavenly Father: There is no time to step back. No time to turn away from heavenly principles. There is an urgency to step fast. “Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not” (Psalm 17:5). As I step fast, guide my every thought and action so that I will follow Your leading wherever You send me and not step back—even for one moment. Amen.