Burn The Ships

Thursday, January 26

Burn The Ships

So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect. Acts 19:20

For King and Country sing a song titled ‘Burn The Ships’ and the lyrics says

‘Step into a new day

We can rise up from the dust and walk away

We can dance upon our heartache, yeah

So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships’

Burn the ships is a phrase which is said to have come from the 1519 Spanish conquest of Mexico when commander Hernán Cortés burned his ships so that his men would be forced to win or die. Noble or not, what commander Cortés did was determine a point of no return for him and his men. And this is what these believers do in Acts 19. They determined a point of no return not against people but evil practices.

]Sometimes this is needed. We need a declarative moment of no return. A moment we cannot turn back. A moment where we get fed up and say enough is enough. And by removing the option to return, the best thing to do is the hardest thing. But we do the hard thing because of the immense value. The net gain is so much more that we are willing not just to leave it behind but to burn it completely.

What do you need to burn today?

An action?

An opportunity?

An event?

An attitude?

A language or a word?

A bad habit?

A connection?

Whatever it is, trust that God will see you through it. Today I encourage you to reflect on where you need to grow in your relationship with God. Determine one factor that’s holding you back. Assess its value. Measure it against the net gain of living in a closer relationship with God. And then “burn the ships.”

Prayer for today: God, show me what needs to be thrown in the fire today. And then give me strength to burn it. Amen.