By Glenn Miller

GOD’S WORD: “This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” – 1 John 5:3-5

For six hundred years, between the tenth and the sixteenth centuries, the world’s richest treasures were held in impenetrable fortresses by the Aztec Empire of South America. Despite the fact that conquerors from all over the world tried to take this treasure, no one was able to overcome the Aztecs and capture the riches. But in 1519, a Spanish conqueror named Hidalgo Cortez changed history. Selling everything he had to bankroll this adventure, he sailed with 100 men in eleven boats from the shores of Cuba, intent to bring back the treasure.

As one would expect, the closer the armada got, the more doubt and fear arose. They knew that thousands before them had failed and that if they failed this time, at least they’d be in good company. The odds were against them and about half-way there, the men began to abandon their dreams and look for excuses to turn back and go home, where things were at least convenient and predictable. But Cortez held off the mutiny and they soon arrived on the shores of South America where the treasure was held.

But instead of immediately attacking the Aztec army, Cortex spent weeks drilling the troops and instilling in them the dream and the confidence needed for victory. As they assembled one last time before making the first charge, he told his troops something that has had a profound impact on me when I find myself meeting insurmountable odds.  Instead of giving them instruction for what to do should they find themselves being defeated, Cortez looked them in the eyes and said three extremely powerful words: 

“Burn the boats!”

Cortez told them that if they were going home, they’d go home in the Aztec’s boats and not their own. He left no option but victory! And an amazing thing happened; they fought very well and after six hundred years of being held by the Aztec empire, the treasure was now theirs.

You see, Cortez saw the boats in the harbor as a safety net. As long as their boats were anchored, they had a means of escape and could return to the old way of doing things. By removing that option, the only thing left for the soldiers to do was win or die. They chose to win.

We, too, have boats in our lives that need burning. Boats that symbolize those things that keep us tied to the dock of comfort and convenience; boats that keep us tied to the moors of complacency and “the-road-most-traveled-by-others.”

Boats of self-reliance upon our own pedigree, bank accounts, education, or social position.  Boats of selfishness and self-centeredness; a cancer in our society that awards philosophies that inspire “to thine own self be true”.

Boats of remembrances of former hurts, failures and sins that keep us from our true identity in Jesus; that our sins have been forgiven and by His blood we have been given a robe of righteousness.

The are all boats from Satan’s armada and have no place in the minds of those who claim Christ and their Lord and the victory He has provided each believer.

Isn’t it time to burn the boats that are keeping you from being all you can be for the glory of God? After all, if you burn your boat, you have nothing else to do but to step out of it. It’s then, through faith, we either trust God to allow us to walk on water or provide God the opportunity to catch us.