Regrets

 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  Philippians 3:13......"Let us cease dragging old, dead things with us into the new abundant life that Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection made possible."....."We believe that the manger was full. Do we equally believe that the tomb was empty?" Alicia Britt Chole

Phippians 3:13 may be the most used and preached Scripture for the new year across the face of the western church. Yet, how successful are we in living it out? How many of us can really "forget" what has gone before? How many of us remain chained to the works, deeds, and effects of the past? How many of us live with regrets that are so potent that they hold us in their grip and affect our day to day living and relationships? Regret can choke the very life out of us.

I don't believe Paul was either telling or expecting the Philippians to literally forget what had happened in their lives, but he was exhorting them to grow past the effects of what they'd lived through, especially as concerns their own personal failures and sins.As Chole writes, when regret has its way with us, "anticipation empties, dreams flatten, and hope is suffocated. We can learn from the past, but we don't have to be tormented by it." So many of us are. We think of choices we've made, actions we've taken, sins we've committed, and the oftentimes destructive results that have come from them. We should have a godly sorrow over such things, but it is never His will that we remain in the chains of that sorrow. The devil can use even our godly sorrow against us, tormenting us with constantly replayed memories of what we've done, or what we've missed, or the road we should have taken. The regret can become so heavy that we become spiritually and emotionally disabled. We cannot press on. We cannot strive to lay hold of what He has for us because we can't let go of what is past. We know that we're forgiven by Him, but our regrets keep us from forgiving ourselves. 

I know something of the tyranny of regrets. The memories of the life I once led, the awful things I did, the people I hurt, and the destruction I wreaked have all been used by the enemy to try and cover me with shame and condemnation. It is then that His Spirit has to remind me anew that I'm forgiven in Christ. That I'm no longer the person I was. The old has passed and the new has come. His Scriptural promise that His mercies are new every morning comes alive in and for me. Yesterday is gone, today is the day the Lord has made. I WILL. by His grace, rejoice and be glad in it. 

The tomb is empty. The resurrection and abundant life in Him are realities. His blood forgives, cleanses, and covers. It washes over and breaks all the power of the past. Let us, as Chole says, stop dragging old dead things with us into His new day, new life, and new future. What has been done by us has been done. It is over. What has been done by Christ on the cross and in the resurrection has been done, and its effects are still being done. Let them be done in you and in me every day of our lives. Leave the old dead things behind. Stretch forth to lay hold of all the "new" He has for you, for us this year. He has made all things new. Let us step into that.

Blessings,
Pastor O