Praise in Regret

In this week’s video I spent some time talking about bad memories that can come to haunt us. I have not talked to many people about this but those that I have seem to have expressed a similar issue to me. Sometimes I get stuck thinking about a situation from years ago that I didn’t like how I acted or what I said and I am thinking about it for hours sometimes. This prevents me from doing whatever I need to do and there is no need to think about this anymore, the other parties involved have probably forgotten and moved on but here I am stuck with guilt from something that can never change. I want to just learn from it and move one, instead I let this regret become the poison I inject myself with.

I tell myself I should learn from my mistakes and move on. Ask, for forgiveness and stop letting the past drag me down. Maybe there is more to it. I think these pains of regret should be turned into praise to our creator because even though we only see the bad he sees all the ripples in the water and uses them all to further His purpose. We see this in Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

This is something we can doubt be we can see examples of times people have shown regret and it was all for God’s purposes.

Daniel 6:13-16
                Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”
                Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”
                Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”

The king’s distress here is his regret. The story goes on, Daniel doesn’t die with the lions but lives and look at what happens in Daniel 6:25-27

Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel,
for he is the living God,
    enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed,
    and his dominion shall be to the end.
He delivers and rescues;
    he works signs and wonders
    in heaven and on earth,
he who has saved Daniel
    from the power of the lions.”

That’s not all either, We can find more regret in Matthew 27:3-4
Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.”

These events brought Judas life ending regret and God used it. Jesus died and killed all our sin with Him. He then rose victorious over death and left our sins behind. So, the next time this regret comes up whether something from ten minutes ago or ten years ago, repent and praise God for His power and ability to use these things for His Glory.