Burning Bridges

John 6:68 “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

When you come on the Ranch now, you enter through our brand new entrance. After the new entrance was completed, we had to make a concrete decision to close the old entrance and open the new one. That was quite a step! Once we gave the o.k., a crew began tearing out the asphalt at the old entrance. We had reached the point of no return-there was no going back now! I told my wife, Sena, that we were in a sense “burning a bridge.”

Have you heard the term “burning bridges”as an allusion to an army on the advance? An army on the advance is set in its objective, and cutting off any possibility of retreat strengthens its determination for victory. Every morning you ought to burn bridges. You should cut out all recourse and retreat back to other things you might depend on. Our tendency-our first nature-is to depend on ourselves. It would do us well each morning to burn the bridge back to self-dependence. You have a choice-to look to God for strength and provision, or to fall back on your first nature.

John 6:66 says, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” Jesus had amassed quite a following, especially after He provided physical bread for a hungry crowd of thousands. But earthly, physical bread did not satisfy; the same people were hungry the next day. In response to Jesus’ question, “Will ye also go away?”, Peter makes a great statement with a question: “To whom shall we go?”

Peter’s question of “to whom shall we go?” is a good question to ask after salvation. To whom will you go for advice on your home? There are plenty of people and influences that are willing to give you advice. But God’s plan in the Bible runs contrary to our own nature and to our culture. Each day you must make a conscious decision to trust God-you must burn the bridge back to your first nature.

Did Peter ever retreat? Read John 21:15-19. The Lord “recomissioned” Peter to follow Him. Why? Peter was not following; he was fishing. Fishing is not bad, but fishing is not following. Peter had to burn that bridge, and may God help us today to burn the bridge back to our first nature and follow Him.