When growing up, I often heard the good advice, “Don’t burn the bridges behind you, in case you have to go back.” The counsel meant if you were quitting a job, leave under good circumstances, in case you had to work there again or if they had to give you a reference.
If it was the end of the school year, it would be wise to leave in good standing with all the students in case you had to share classes with them next year. If you were moving out of the neighborhood, it would be good to leave a good impression on your neighbors rather than a bad one. You never knew if you would bump into them again. I was always taught to try to keep the door open so that you could always go back or be welcomed if you had to return.
It is good advice – in most cases. One exception is when it applies to living the Christian life.
When a person solely trusts Christ for his salvation, he is born again into the family of God. He is a new creature. He is free from the bondage of sin. God does not want him to go back into the same mess from which he was saved.
If God saved a person and helped him overcome the sin of lying, God certainly does not want him to go back into the same transgression. If God delivered a person from the clutches of a terrible drinking habit, He does not want him back in the same situation. When the Lord saves us and cleans up our lives, He wants us to stay clean from iniquity that will hurt us. He gives us a second chance.
The only way we can keep from going back into the same sin God delivered us from is to stay away from it. The safest way to protect oneself from going back into the lifestyle God rescued you from is to “burn the bridges” behind you. In this situation, it is good advice to make it so you cannot return to what you once were.
I learned this lesson in many ways when I first was saved. God dealt with me about my sin of not taking proper care of my body by smoking. He convicted my heart to keep from defiling my life with that sin (I Corinthians 3:16-17), but it was too hard for me to quit. I needed His help.
God impressed on my heart that if I made it public to my friends and family that I was quitting smoking, it would be somewhat embarrassing to go back on my word. My telling everyone “burnt the bridges behind me,” making it difficult to return to that sin. I did just that, and it helped.
Later, God impressed on me that I needed to stay away from certain friends, as I would not follow them into more sin. It was hard just to stop seeing them.
God showed me from some Bible passages that my new responsibility as a Christian was to tell my friends how they could be saved. It was hard, but I found that some listened. Others decided that if I were going to live a godly life, they would not have anything to do with me (ironic isn’t it; they would be my friend when I did wrong, but not when I did right). This “burnt the bridges” behind those relationships, so I could not go back into the same life of sin I had come from, and could only move forward spiritually.
God loves you so much that He sacrificed His only Son’s (Jesus) life so that you could spend eternity in Heaven. If you trust in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for your salvation (Roman 10:9), you are a child of God.
He saved you from the punishment of sin. You cannot lose your salvation. It is a gift freely given to you — forever. With this gift comes a new life and the possibility of a new future. Do not go back into the same life from which you were delivered.
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate …” II Corinthians 6:17
The pull to go back into the same sinful life you were born into is too great for anyone to resist. King David could not resist the temptation of sin. King Solomon could not. Samson could not, nor could Lot’s wife, Moses, Peter, Saul, Delilah, or you.
Make it inconvenient for yourself to go back into the same life and habits from which you asked God to deliver you. “Burn the bridges,” so you cannot return to a life of not pleasing or living for God.
“Your character is what you do when no one is watching.” — Author Unknown
I had a pastor friend that pulled into a gas station, and as he pulled up to the gas pump a man zoomed up going the opposite way to the same pump and beat my friend to the pump. My pastor friend gave him a long stare and was about to get out of his car and give the man a piece of his mind, but decided it wasn’t worth making a scene about it.
The next Sunday, my pastor friend had a new visitor at his church – it was the same man that beat him to the gas pump! My pastor friend thought he could’ve burned a bridge (or ruined his testimony) with this man had he caused a scene at the gas station!
Like you said: always keep the door open cause you never know “who” will walk through it, including you!
Great devotion!
Bro Brinkworth,
Do you agree that our sanctified life is one of the ways God brings conviction to the sinner?. It is in them to know they are sinners: being around someone who is relatively free of sin brings this into light. So it is only natural that some bridges will be burnt. The truth is that the more you focus on God and are forward looking, the more irrelevant that bridge becomes to you. It would say little to the lost if we were drunkards, adulterers, etc… But if we draw close to God, try to live a Christlike life, it draws a sharp contrast. By way of their conscience, they will either be attracted to our way of life or they will not. Our only option as Christians is to leave the far country and not go back.
Many years ago, when I rededicated myself to the Lord, I remember “coming to myself”. The reason I was in the Far country is that I never burnt those bridges. I did not have a list of “I will nots”. Thankfully, I did come back to the Father’s house and I am glad to say I burnt those bridges clear down to the ground. There is no going back, there is nothing to go back to. I couldn’t tell you how to get there.
Amen. We’re on the winning side. Why should we even want to live like, act like, watch the same things, talk the same was as the lost. To most we are all of Christ they will ever see. We need to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Mat. 5:16