On Regret

I was supposed to do a Checkpoint. But I needed to get this out of my chest.

Ironically, much as I would like to go into deep detail on this one, I’m thinking I’d rather write those details down on my notebook.

This life we’ve been given isn’t to be spent with regret. Regret spawns fear, and fear corrupts our daily decisions, our forecasts, and our long-term planning.

But I’m saying we can live more than just a life with no regrets. I’m saying that it’s not enough for us to just take fear and regret out of our lives. Thankfully, Christ, in His grasp and authority over time and space itself, inspires us with timeless and boundless wisdom: That perfect love casts out all fear.

Take note that it’s fear that is cast out, and not regret; this is to say that yes, we understand and do acknowledge the consequences of our actions. We sort of like to stand on the regrets of past mistakes; our past gravitation towards being self-righteous has us doing that. But we ought to know that Christ paid such a great price for us to stand, and not just stand, but conquer from a foundation of perfect love, present for us here and now, no matter what we’ve done before.

Regret had me sighing a lot, trying to make up for the huge mistakes I’ve done. Trying to get back what I lost because of what I did. Trying to restore what I lost. At the same time, regret had me pitying myself a little too much, believing that I blew it, and that I would do myself a favor by being lazy under the guise of seeking comfort.

And to tell you honestly, I still feel like my heart is all sunken. It sucks.

But even in this, Christ lovingly reminds me that He remains and will always be faithful. That He will always love me. That in spite of all my arguments upholding the guilt and condemnation I feel, the fact and Truth of the matter is that it’s His word that stands. The living Word was nailed to a cross, and before breathing His last, His word was that ‘it IS finished’.

In spite of the lies and the thoughts and the regret and the fear being so overbearing, the Truth of the matter stands: It is finished. My salvation has and always will be complete, for as Christ lives forever, so I am forever alive in and through Him.

It is finished. Christ is fully righteous, so I am fully righteous – as He was raised, so I was born again, with a new righteous heart, clothed and covered in righteousness.

It is finished. Christ is alive in me, and I am alive in Him.

And my union in Christ has me realizing – in spite of the pain I welcome and the pain I inflict upon myself – that I am STILL and will always be perfectly loved by a perfect God who hugs me so tightly – past mistakes, current trials, imperfections, and all.

As Joseph Prince said, ‘You are not your own Savior’. In regret, we ought to remind ourselves of the Life that has been given to us. Let us give due credit to the Truth, in spite of the regrets that present themselves as facts to us. Let us understand that true love shines its perfection even more in our imperfections.

We’ve been so accustomed to existing in condemnation and fear. Through Christ, we have been brought into a life – no, an adventure of living in perfect love… where regret, along with everything else, has been put in its proper place, and where Christ is above, yet in all things.

In Christ is perfect love – and in Him, we live, and move, and have our being.