Lingering

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. – Genesis 19.15-16

Lot knew that destruction was coming. He knew God was about to wipe out the city. He knew God was going to pour out His wrath. He knew it – but he still hesitated to leave. He lingered to the point that the angels had to drag him out of the city.

Lingering with sin is a HUGE problem. I always think about Joseph and Potiphar’s wife here. What would have happened if, instead of wriggling out of his cloak and running away Joseph had lingered in Mrs Potiphar’s arms. Just think about the alternative history that could have been written. What a mess lingering would have caused and how different things would have been.

As a young man Timothy was clearly told to ‘flee youthful lusts’ because if we don’t run chances are we are going to get into serious trouble.

Sometimes when we linger God graciously steps in to change our situation so that we do not sin. Sometimes He lets us suffer the consequences.

We tend to linger too long with those feelings or those thoughts or that glance or that look or that attitude.

I am learning, and by God’s grace may it continue on, not linger over my cares and anxieties. There have been a few times over the last few days when lingering over my worries and cares had almost been hurtful and have set off alarm bells as my pulse wait shot up and I have had to just choose to stop worrying. Wouldn’t it be great if a real alarm went off every time we lingered over a sin or a temptation?

We are never going to move on spiritually if we stop to linger at over ever draw and every temptation. I don’t want God to have to drag me away. I want to get to the point where I know the problem with lingering and move on every time I see it.