Regretfully Yours

What Are Our Regrets?

I have mine, you have yours. They are regrets that make us wish there is a reset button we can press every time we make a mistake so that we can start all over again. But things already happened and we can't undo them. Things happened, and in the process we've hurt other people, those who are closest to our hearts, including ourselves. We regret doing things and have lived in the pain that goes with it, along with the consequences that came after it. Living in the present, are we still struggling with the regrets that we have? What happened in the past happened. It's time to get over them, move on, and stop reliving them.

Is There Something Good that Came Out From those Regrets?

• Have you become a stronger, better and wiser person? If you did, at least you benefited from them and probably have moved on for the better.
• Are you still wallowing in the pit of regrets? If you are, you are still living in the past and struggling everyday of your life. Don't be a prisoner of the past.

A Few Examples of People With Regrets in the Bible

David - Aside from bodily pain and sickness, he also complains of the regrets he have arising from his past sins. It is a sad thing to be suffering both physically and spiritually.

"I am weary with my groaning;
All night I make my bed swim;
I drench my couch with my tears.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
It grows old because of all my enemies." - Psalm 6:6-7

Job - "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived." - Job 3:3. "Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?" - Job 3:11 (KJV)

Have we ever felt this way? Because of the heaviness of heart and so much regret, it makes us curse the day we were born. Job did curse the day he was born but he did not curse his God. Have we cursed our God?

Peter - "And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly." Luke 22:61-62 (KJV)

Peter wept bitterly when he realized what he has done. He cried with Godly sorrow.

Overcoming Regrets

If we look at what David, Peter, and Job have experienced, they became miserable and were full of anguish but have looked up to God for forgiveness and continued being faithful men of God. Judas, on the other hand, was feeling so much regret on betraying Jesus and was not able to handle it. He committed suicide instead of coming before Jesus to ask for His forgiveness. Is there a sin too big enough for God to handle? None! God can handle and forgive even the most horrible sin you have committed. One thing you have to do is confess and ask for His forgiveness. Jesus made a way for us to move past our sins that lead us to regrets.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9 (NKJV)

Let us all give our regrets to God and ask for His forgiveness. That way, we can start anew and leave what is behind us that caused those regrets.

David's response to God when He committed adultery with Bathsheba was found in Psalm 51. He came before God and with all humility asked for His forgiveness.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10 (KJV)

What the Bible Says

• Godly sorrow brings repentance - "For Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV)
• Forgetting and moving forward - "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead" - Philippians 3:13 (NKJV)
• No more condemnation - "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:1 (KJV)
• Forget the former things -“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." - Isaiah 43:18,19 (NIV)
• Come now - "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." - Isaiah 1:18 (KJV)

You can also read this from one of my hubs at https://hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/regrets_and_moving_forward