Letting Go of Regrets

Today, I am going to discuss regrets. As we look into our past, we all can find regrets. A regret leads us to wish we could change the past. It makes us feel bad and we might be punishing ourselves because of it.

A few years ago, I heard a philosophy that helped me look at my past differently. There was a group of gentlemen asking each other about their greatest regrets. One of the gentlemen said he has no regrets. He explained that he feels he made the best choices he could with the knowledge, wisdom, understanding, or information he had at any particular time.

The reason we have regrets, is because we are NOT who we were at that point in our past. We have become wiser, we have more knowledge, we have grown in maturity...we have changed. We wouldn’t see the past with any regret if we were the same person now as we were then.

It is our past which has made us who we are today. Without those experiences, those choices, and those mistakes, we wouldn’t learn or grow into a stronger, wiser person. With those experiences, we grow into who God has created us to be.

James 1:4 says
“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

And Romans 8:28 says
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”

So it is important to leave the regrets behind and remember that our past has a purpose for growth. God will work it all out for our best interest and He promises to give us a future.

Apostle Paul wrote about leaving the past behind in Philippians 3:13-14
“one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”