What would you do differently?

Last Sunday afternoon, in a conversation with my nephew, Justin asked questions about our family history and my life. Near the end of our talk he asked, “What would you do differently if you could?”  It did not take a great deal of thought to answer his question. As I mused about a cross-roads moment in my life, now decades past, I told him how maturity has changed my perspective, how I now understand those choices and what  I might have done in a different way!  We all have those kinds of memories, don’t we?  We wonder what might have been if we had taken the other side of that fork in the road of life.

Here is what I also know -
God is the Restorer, the Healer,
One who is able to take the messes we make
and use them for His glory.  

What should we do with yesterday’s mistakes and sins? 

We need to confess our part honestly to God, and where approprate, to others.
When we own our choices, without excuse or attempts to justify ourselves, coming to Jesus in humility, we find His arms open, His love without limits. John says that “He is faithful to forgive… to cleanse us.”  What a wonderful assurance we can know that God forgives. The ancient preacher, Micah, asks - "Where is another God like you, who pardons the sins of the survivors among his people? You cannot stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing mercy. Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!" (Micah 7:18-19, NLT)

We need to make things right wherever possible and appropriate.
Wise counsel can help us see where we need to go to another and offer restitution. A sincere apology can go a long way to heal a soul wound that happened as a result of our choice. Jesus taught us not to to paper over our sins with pious words. He said “if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God." (Matthew 5:23-24, NLT)  

We can face the future without the need to wallow in regret!
Like Paul, my focus is not what was, but what is and what will be! My prayer is that God will show me how to live today as I advance toward tomorrow- be it here on earth or in His heaven!  In his early years as a Pharisee named Saul, he hated Believers in Christ and worked to destroy the Gospel message and those who followed Jesus.

But God, in amazing grace, met him on the road to Damascus. Saul believed that day and was changed. The transformation was so profound, he even took a new name! Had he lived in perpetual regret, he might have faded into obscurity, making tents in some Roman town, sorrowful 'til death for his persecution of those who loved the Lord. Or, he might have settled down to pastor the church in Ephesus, where his message met with great success and tried to hold onto a moment of triumph.

But, he did neither of those things. Why? He tells us. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But 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." (Philippians 3:12-14, NIV) He knew what he was called to do and kept at it – faithfully. He left the sins in the grace of God, celebrated the triumphs, and anticipated the glorious future.

We cannot try to erase the past or to rewrite history nor are we wise if we allow nostalgia take us hostage.  Today is full of opportunities that God provides, so when we awaken let us say - "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24, NIV)  

In our youth we tend to live too much in the future.
As we age, we are tempted more and more to live in the past.

God works in the present! He is the Lord of this day.

Are your eyes open to what the Spirit is doing today?

I leave you with this word from the Word, Jesus’ appeal to his friends to see what God was doing right now. “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (John 4:34-35, NIV)

____________

(Video of this blog at this link)

 

All The Way My Saviour Leads Me

 All the way my Savior leads me
What have I to ask beside
Can I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my Guide
Heav'nly peace divinest comfort
Here by faith in Him to dwell
For I know whate'er befall me
Jesus doeth all things well
For I know whate'er befall me
Jesus doeth all things well

All the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father's house above
When my spirit clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages

Jesus led me all the way
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way

Fanny Jane Crosby © Words: Public Domain