Bridges that need to be burned!
Burning Bridges
Matthew 5: 27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
When God asks you to do something you think is impossible but He has commanded because He is seeking to save you from your sinful past and to bring about a new life and new direction to you, what do you do?
God wants you to deal savagely, and ruthlessly with your past when He brings salvation to you.
In the Old Testament story of Elijah and Elisha, when Elijah was looking for a successor, God told him it would be this young man Elisha.
One day Elijah saw Elisha ploughing a field with a team of oxen. Elijah went over to Elisha and threw his mantle around Elisha’s shoulders, which was a symbolic gesture mean, “You are now my successor. You are to follow in my footsteps, to carry on my ministry.”
Elisha said to Elijah, “I must first go and kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you!”
Elijah responded, “Go on back! But consider what I have done to you!”
Elijah was saying, “I don’t think you understand what I am fully asking you to do and what I have just done with you!”
Elisha picked up on what Elijah said this time so he made a bonfire out of his wooden plough yokes and offered up the oxen as sacrifices unto the Lord.
This is what God wants of all of us. To burn our bridges that link us back to our past way of living.
Many Christians fail to do so and thus relapse back into their old life style.
Same old relationships. Same old habits. Same old sinful ways.
Thus they are unable to move forward.
If addiction to alcohol is your old past life, do you still have alcohol left in your house? Pour it down the drain.
If impure thoughts are haunting you still, do you still have pornographic material laying around? Destroy them! Do you have filters on your internet? Put them on!
Burn the bridges back to your past.
Remove any means and connections back to the old you.
This is what God asks of you.