Overcoming Regret

How many people have something they've done in the past that they regret, whether years ago, months ago, days ago, hrs ago, 5 minutes ago that they wish they hadn't done .....?

Regret is a skillful tactic the enemy can use to keep us in a place that God has already taken us out of....You could've repented, you could've acknowledged the wrong, whatever it was, you've seen the error of your ways, God has forgiven you!!...But you still seem to be STUCK in the past with regretful feelings and emotions.

Then that opens a door, a chain reaction , you replay that regretful memory in your mind over and over, wishing you could've done it all differently....STUCK.  Right there, right where you are, days past, weeks past but your still right there and then what does that lead to? Depression, discouragement a feeling of helplessness and a desire to give up.

You see there's nothing good that comes from dwelling in regret, no good fruit that you can produce from regret. I was an avid regretter and to be transparent I still am at times, I have to catch myself because I have a standard and if I fall below that I beat myself up for not "doing better". Every time I do something significantly wrong I would spend days, weeks! Replaying the act in my head and I...would....sink, and even when the Lord would try to get me out of it with encouragement, love, even the very NEXT sermon I'd here would be about letting things go!!! But NO I HAD to punish myself by MAKING myself feel the hurt that regret brings about .

It's a toxic way to handle a situation & more importantly it does not....portray the CHARACTER of God;

Isaiah 43:18-19 

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

I like this verse because it is specifically telling us to forget what happened before and focus on the new thing God is doing within you .He's saying don't you perceive it, sense it, feel it? God is working on you, remembering and dwelling on the negative things of the past adds to nothing good God is doing in you RIGHT NOW.

I also love how this verse says "I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, the wilderness wouldn't be an uncultivated, uninhibited region if there was paths through it. The desert wouldn't be a desert if it has rivers flowing through. God is saying I will make a way where there is NO way, if you're feeling helpless, like God can't possibly fix you're broken heart, your drug addiction, you're womanizing or promiscuity, He's saying "I can and I will.

Look, God is not surprised when you sin, He doesn't sit on His throne and the minute you sin He gets up and says "Well I definitely didn't see that one coming". 

There's an inside joke among my close friends; He doesn't turn to Enoch (who was raptured up to heaven) and say "well come here and look at this Enoch, I'm completely shocked at what so and so did."

In all seriousness God is in fact not surprised, it's not new to Him, you didn't blindside Him with anything you've done. 

And here's why...

John 3:16-17 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God knows everything about you, even before you were in the womb,He knows everything your going to do before you do it , He knows everything your going to say before you say it, He knows every strand of hair on your head and yet HIS grace is sufficient, His love still pours out on you., His mercy is still freely given.

God shows the magnitude, the depth of His love, by sending His Son, who is pure, blameless and knew NO sin.To carry the great burden of OUR sin. He was beaten, ridiculed, nailed to the cross, for us, for our sin, for our REGRETS. We are not called to carry the burden of our regrets. It is done, it is finished.

Jesus so graciously carried it for us, the sin of the world, generation after generation are saved.

Your past is gone and God's love refuses to allow you to stay in that place, as He prunes us, purges us, makes us NEW. So when presented with a situation that if we give in, it'll be another regret!....This time this new thing He's doing in us has taken route, it becomes who we are, this new thing?!..... the righteousness of Christ

I'm praying for you!

Let go and be happy, you deserve it

xoxox

Gaelle M. D