“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT)
One of the strongest enemies of my heart is regret. “If onlys” flood my mind at times and seek to rob me of joy, contentment and satisfaction in my walk with the Lord. Yes, of course, we’ve all failed to be all we could be for the Lord, and the truth is, if we’d known when we first started what we now know, we’d still have messed up. It’s part of the deal. Failure isn’t the problem, it’s that we fail to learn from our failure and move beyond it.
Satan finds our weakness and he just keeps hammering us. We sin, collapse in failure and regret, repent, promise God we’re done with that, then two hours or two days later we do the same thing. But why? The issue of sin is our mind. What we think about comes about. If we’re focused on that sin that we strongly hate and soooooooo want to avoid, guess what? We’re NOT going to avoid it. Why not? Because it’s all we think about.
We’ve got to give something else priority in our mind, but what? It’s interesting that the disciples never asked the Lord to teach them to preach, to effectively communicate God’s Truth like Jesus was so able to do. They asked Him to teach them to pray. Which, of course, begs the question: What is prayer?
Prayer, as I have learned to understand it, is disciplining my mind to think God’s thoughts. What does that mean? Where do we find God’s thoughts? In God’s Word, the Bible. We must learn to read, ponder, and apply God’s words. For example. I’m reading the Psalms through again now and I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before. In Psalm 1 it says: “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, MEDITATING ON IT DAY AND NIGHT. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do.”
How would you like to live like that? But how? By following its instruction. Pay attention to who you spend your time with. Delve into God’s Word. Ponder it, Think about it. Begin setting aside 15-20 minutes a day and let it grow from there. Have a pen and paper available and take notes. Memorize key verses by putting them on small cards with the verse written on one side and the reference on the other. Fill you mind with God’s words so you can draw from them when you’re tempted.
It’s also helpful to sing godly songs. Sometimes just remembering the titles can thrill me. I’m old, so older songs come to mind, like “We Shall Behold Me” always grips my heart. There are many others, but that’s not the point, remember songs that will thrill your heart and turn your mind to Jesus and what He’s done for you.
Take a phrase from Scripture like “I will never leave you.” Think about what that means, not only in the literal sense, but how it applies to you in this season of your life. Jesus will never leave you… in your temptation, in your pain, in your quest to learn, in your efforts to witness for Him, in whatever direction the Lord leads your mind, grasp it, enjoy it, cherish it and walk faithfully in it.
Keeping our focus on Jesus and all He’s done and is doing in, through, and on our behalf will prevent us from wallowing in shame and regret.
Your mind will grow based on what you feed it.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 