Philippians 3:12-14
Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.
I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
The famous song "I did it my way" contains the words
"Regrets, I've had a few... but then again too few to mention."
Some of us have more regrets than others. We all have to deal with decisions and actions that we did or failed to do that can haunt us and rob us of the joy of life.
The Apostle Paul could have given in to regrets about how he persecuted Christians, even to death, prior to his conversion on the Damascus Road. What would have happened to large parts of the New Testament if he had nursed his regrets instead of declaring the liberating truth of the Gospel?
Tonight, as we walked the dog, I rehearsed some of my own regrets to my nearest and dearest. It was a kind of therapy of the soul - opening up to my own lostness without Jesus.
Satan loves to accuse us of failings and how we have let Jesus down in our lives. We all do in one way or another.
Yet The Holy Spirit doesn't condemn, but points out areas where we need to change and then encourages us onwards towards the goal of our calling - to be like Jesus.
We need to discern which voice is speaking in order to be free of Satan's accusations.
Satan wants to keep us brow beaten and to coerce us into giving up.
Conversely, The Holy Spirit is like a good coach, pointing out our weaknesses in order to encourage us to overcome our failures.
He will whisper: "Come on - you can do this, pick yourself up and get going again", whereas Satan will shout "You're no good, call yourself a Christian, give it up - you're a failure!"
Romans 8:31-39
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you're struggling with regrets, be encouraged - God is for you, not against you! He wants to get you back up and running again.
Selah.
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