A Nugget from New Life Network

(excerpts from Bob Gass Ministries)

Scripture for the Day (June 1, 2018)

He burned the plowing equipment.. (1 Kings 19:21, NIV)

Elisha’s ministry begins with this Scripture: “He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people …Then he set out to follow Elijah.” He couldn’t go back to his old way of life because he had destroyed the time machine that would take him back. It was the end of Elisha the farmer, and the beginning of Elisha the prophet.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to lose weight, get  into graduate school, write a book, start a business or a ministry, or get out of debt. The first step is always the longest step and the hardest. You can’t just take a step forward into the future; you also have to eliminate the possibility of moving backward into the past. That’s how you go after goals. That’s how you break addictions. That’s how you reconcile relationships. To begin a new chapter, you must end an old chapter.

In my own personal experience I had a set of close friends that I associated with before I gave my life to the Lord. We drank together, we hunted together, and we partied together. Once I gave my life to the Lord these friends started making fun of me and kept encouraging me to return to my old ways. I finally realized that I was going to have to make a decision who I was going to follow. I made that decision and never looked back.

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matthew 19:29)

Elisha didn’t need to burn his plowing equipment to follow Elijah, but it made a statement. More specifically, it was a statement of faith. There was no turning back. Nine times out of ten, failure is resorting to Plan B when Plan A gets too risky, too costly, or too difficult. That’s why most people are living their Plan B. They haven’t burned their bridges to the past. Plan A people don’t have a Plan B. It’s Plan A or bust. They would rather crash and burn going after their God-ordained dreams, than succeed at something else.

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:6)

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

The word for you today is: Burn all those bridges to the past and move forward with God.

 

 

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