IF ONLY I COULD GO BACK

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  Romans 6:20

What are the things you regret?  Regret is a powerful emotion and if I choose to live in it without having placed all my hopes in a God who redeems, I will become depressed and withdrawn.  There were words spoken that I can’t take back.  There were a series of selfish acts that seemed so small at the time but yielded great pain for those around me.  That is the cruelty of sin; what looked like no big deal led me to do it a second time, then a third, and it wasn’t long before guilt became my ever constant companion.  I have thought many times, “If only I could go back and do it right!”

Wisdom runs deep in the heart of a repentant sinner. I am passionate about the lessons I’ve learned from my mistakes.  Give me a soapbox (and God has) and I’ll proclaim loudly, “Don’t do it!  You can’t afford the ultimate payoff of shame and regret.”

The real tragedy is the child of God who has come to Christ but has never tapped into ‘abiding in Christ’ to experience the power of His Word to redeem each place of shame.  Many, including myself for a few decades, lived in the bitter place of regret.  I numbed my pain with service to God, hoping to lessen my guilt.  This proved futile and led to an emotional crash in my forties.

Where is joy on the other side of regret?  That’s tomorrow’s devotional. To fully indulge in God’s gracious offer of sanctification, I have to stop everything and look honestly at how my sin has shaped me.  Is there something I’ve done that still causes me to shrink and become depressed?  As a fly feeds on rotting flesh, Satan feeds on guilt and shame.  The sweet fruit of repentance is mine if I’m willing to do live by faith. Every memory where my body still slumps as it remembers can be impacted by the message of God’s redemption.

You never intended for your children to live in the tears of regret.  The tears of repentance are meant to lead to the joy of forgiveness and redemption.  Give us the oil of healing for every place that still makes us wince as we remember.  Amen