Regret

If you’ve lived very long there is no doubt you will have some regrets. Regret is defined as, “to feel sorry, disappointed, distressed or remorseful about, to remember with a feeling of loss or sorrow, to mourn. That feeling can be overwhelming sometimes. 

As parents we could all look back and have regrets. Maybe we regret not spending enough time with our kids, or not making it to all of their activities because of our workload. Maybe we regret not taking that job opportunity we were offered. We may regret a friendship that ended, or a marriage. Life offers us many opportunities to regret many things. 

But if it is something that happened in the past there is no way to change it now. Unless you have a Delorean with a time machine! We can logically realize that but our emotions can try to take us down a path of regret so strong it robs us of the joy of today. Our enemy has come to kill steal and destroy us any way he can. If we let him he will use regret to rob our future and also keep us stuck in that place.

I have struggled with the feeling of deep regret over many things. For too long I allowed the enemy to steal my joy and my today. Not any more. I saw in Genesis in the story of creation how amazing it all was only for it all to go south with one dumb decision on Eve’s part. But did God spend time regretting creating her and Adam? No! He set into motion a plan to fix it, to redeem what happened.   

Re means “again” to take something back to it’s original state. Instead of regretting what happened he “redeemed” it, which means, “ to recover ownership, to pay off, to fulfill, to set free, to restore, to atone for.”  In other words he fixed it! I’m eternally grateful that he did!

We can’t fix most of our mistakes or what we deemed as a mistake. We have the choice to let regret ruin our future or we can ask God to show us how to see it. We can choose to see it as something that happened but something we can learn from. If we learn valuable lessons from the things that went wrong we in essence redeem it. We take it and make it valuable again. 

I love to refinish furniture. I found an old bookcase on the side of the road once. The paint was chipping and curled up all over this piece. I didn’t see a piece of furniture that should be thrown in the trash because it was beyond fixing after years sitting out in the weather. Instead I saw potential. I restored it into a beautiful bookcase that I now use in my office. I redeemed it. 

Isaiah 61:3b…."And provide for those who grieve (regret) in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead for ashes, the oil of joy instead for mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor." (NIV) God desires in this hour to redeem your regrets, to give you beauty again in the place of ashes of regret.

"Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.Isaiah 61:7a. No more does shame have a place in your life. God will give you a double portion if you will ask him to. 

"I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10. When you choose to delight yourself in the Lord because of what he has done and can do with your regrets you will be clothed with garments of salvation (redemption)!

Let God have every mistake, every regret, everything that keeps you stuck and trust him to redeem it all for he is beyond able and also waiting for you to act! Just ask and trust him to do it!