Today’s post:
We had a conversation at Wednesday’s support group meeting last week about regret. I know that it is something that a lot of us deal with. We regret things that we said in the “heat of the moment”. We regret doing things that might have changed the course of our lives. Many even regret getting married to the person they thought they knew and after marriage, things changed. Maybe you can relate. You prayed. Or maybe you were so “in love” that you didn’t pray and assumed this was what God wanted you to do because it felt so right. Or maybe there were no red flags, you were convinced you had the go ahead because things were great… until after you got married. The man you dated was not the man you married and then you regretted and second guessed marrying him.
Well, Paul Tripp says in New Morning Mercies in his devotion on March 21: “No need to be paralyzed by regret, because your slate has been wiped clean by God’s amazing forgiving grace.” He shares the following passages that I encourage you to spend some time reading as you ponder your own regrets: Colossians 1:21-22, Romans 5:10, Galatians 3:13-14, Ephesians 2:8-9, Colossians 2:13-14, Romans 8:1-2, Romans 5:1-2, and 1John 4:10.
In Colossians 2 it says: “God has cancelled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the Cross.” What this means is that even if you did sin by marrying “the wrong person”, God has nailed that decision and action to the Cross. He holds no record of debt against you. It is nailed to the Cross…your slate is wiped clean by God’s amazing forgiving grace. God wants you to live in the truth of Philippians 3:13-14: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
So, my advice to you for those nagging regrets you can’t seem to shake is to ask God to help you believe that He has wiped your slate clean by His grace and to walk in faith toward what He has for you that lies ahead. This might need to be a daily prayer, but as you make it your daily prayer, by God’s grace, the regret will fade away!
