“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. Theres’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT)
Do you have regrets? I sure do, and, if I’d let them, they would eat me alive! I believe that’s what Paul is alluding to in the verse above. If we allow our heart and mind to settle on our regrets, we can get so focused on the past it can literally block all hope of a redeemed future.
Even as believers we can play the “if only” game. If only I’d done or said this or that. Or if only I hadn’t said or done this or that. The fact is WE DID do or say what we did or said, and NOTHING will ever change that! Yes, it hurts! Yes, it crushes us to believe we could ever have been that insensitive, careless, ungodly, unthoughtful, __________, and you can fill in the blank.
There are times I can’t sleep for the tears that won’t stop because of the remembrance of past sins. How could I? Why didn’t I? How can I even call myself a Christian after having done THAT? Then, when I allow myself to escape my pity party, I realize what a mighty God we serve, that He casts our sin into the sea of His forgetfulness NEVER to be remembered against us again.
I’m reminded of the sins of Joseph’s brothers who almost killed him but then decided instead to sell him into slavery. He ended up in Egypt and served in different capacities as a slave, but so excelled because of God’s hand upon his life, he ended up second in command of all of Egypt AND the rescuer of his brothers when a famine hit. What’s my point? Our sin doesn’t have the final say – our Forgiver does!
Because God is all knowing and ever present, there’s no such thing to Him as past or present. He knew exactly what was going to happen to Joseph, and to me and you, and just as He was already in Egypt seeing Joseph’s slavery and working it to Joseph’s good and God’s glory, He saw our sin and where that sin would lead us, but He also saw us now, and, by His grace, He’s enabling us to see how He used the things we learned and the hurt it has caused us and others, to form us into the men and women of God we are today.
Recently I found a line from a poem or song I couldn’t trace, but it says: “The fall thou darest to despise could be the angels slackened hand has suffered it that he may rise and take a firmer surer stand, and trusting less to earthly things may henceforth learn to use his wings.”
Whatever heights the wings of God’s love allow and enable us to soar would not be as sweet and meaningful had we not realized the depths from which we, by God’s wonderful grace, have come. And please understand, I’m not just referring to the sin in which we wallowed before our conversion, but even those despicable words and deeds we’ve done since we professed life in Christ.
Perhaps it would be easier to forgive ourselves had we not known the love and forgiveness of our Savior, but the vileness of our words and deeds takes on a new horror in light of our professing faith. “How could you?” someone may cry, but their words can’t cut nearly as deeply as the cry of my (our) own heart when it cries – “How could I!”
It’s in the agony of those moments we catch glimpses of what the grace of God’s underserved love and forgiveness really mean.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 