Living without regrets

Memories that haunt us

How many of you, in the evening, prepared to go to sleep, like you’ve done all your evening chores and you’re about ready to go to sleep, as you head to your bed, you put on your sleeping outfit whatever that may be, and lie down.

As you close your eyes, you hope that the next thing when you wake up is another new day. However, as you lie there with your eyes closed, your brain starts working. Now, at this moment, your mind starts working and you start to think, you start to tell your brain “go to sleep”, but your brain continues to work and you start to think about past memories.

You try your best to think about other things that will put you to sleep, but somehow your brain brings you back to those past memories, and then you start to think about the mistakes you’ve made in the past and how you should of done it differently.

This goes one for about 20-30 minutes, but you don’t realise it as you are tackling with your thoughts to get it to be quiet and to make you fall asleep. But, what has happened is now that past memory has made you start thinking and you start regretting past decisions.

As you’re tackling with your mind and come up with various scenarios, you wake and realised that it is 2 or 3AM in the morning and you wonder whether you’re going to get enough sleep for work in a few hours.

Has this ever happened to any of you?

For me, this usually happens if I take a long nap during the day and when I go to sleep, I am filled with so much dopamine that my mind feels like a theme park. It’s impossible to sleep and eventually I have to wait for my mind to settle and calm down for me to get back to sleep.

However, how many of us have past histories that haunt us, that wake us or even make us cringe when we think about them? I know for most of us, we’re affected by it, it’s there in the recesses of our brains just waiting to pop out and say “hey, remember when you did this?”

No matter what, we’ve all made mistakes, we’ve all made wrong choices that we have to live with. But, how do we live a life without regrets? What can we do to move past these choices that we’ve made in the past and live a life God would want us to have, an abundant life?

Making Christ the centre.

Now, I am no psychologist and I can’t give you an easy way out or some easy fix. Unless you can create a time machine there is nothing that can change the decisions we have made in the past. But, what we can do now is learn from those mistakes and make the right decisions. There is nothing more silly than making the same mistake again and then thinking about it later and beating yourself because you didn’t learn your lesson.

I am reminded of the old preacher:

Ecclesiastes 1:2 NLT

2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

He adds:

Ecclesiastes 1:8 NLT

8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.

Ecclesiastes 1:11 NLT

11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.

This is true for all of us, introspect your lives and look to some of those choices you’ve made in the past, were these choices made just to satisfy and make us feel content? Obviously, yes, we’ve made choices just to make us happy but have we ever thought to make the right choices with God’s guidance?

Some of the choice we make, we do it with the experience that we’ve learned, from learning from those mistakes that we’ve made in the past, but is that enough?

Proverbs 3:5–6 NLT

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Isaiah 30:21 NLT

21 Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.

This is how we can live life without regrets, when we let the Lord make the decision in life, then we don’t have to blame ourselves for mistakes being made.

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

So, even if you feel that the Lord is taking you to some dark part of life, go and find surety in Him.

Psalm 23:4 NLT

4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

The mockers with mock

And you know what is interesting, even though people will tell you, “why did you go that path for? You should have gone here?” or “do you regret going down that way?” or even “you’re a fool to go down that path”.

You don’t have to feel shame because you went down that path with Jesus because that is exactly where He would want you to be, you don’t have to look back and feel regret, but you look back and see how your faith in Him has brought you where you’re at. That’s how we can look at some of the choices we’ve made in the past, because of Him and how He lead in your life.

Don’t let other people tell you otherwise, when you have a relationship with Jesus, when you’re following Him; God will be your guide and even though there will be some highs and lows, the only thing is to trust in Him and the future and hope He has prepared for you.

Look for example to Abraham, the father of faith and the father of multitudes. I am sure there would have been many times he regretted some of the decisions he had made, but in all those decisions that he has made he learnt from his mistakes and continued to remain faithful to the Lord in leading him because He trusted in the Lord and put His life in Him that whatever decision he made, he did it through faith in God.

Hebrews 11:8–10 NLT

8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

Hebrews 11:12 NLT

12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.

You see, in this life, the one that we’re experiencing, the here and now, sure, we’re going to look back in our life and regret some of the choices we’ve made. But, nothing can be compared to the promise and inheritance that we’re looking forward to when we meet Jesus.

In Hebrews 11:10 “10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

It was Abraham’s faithfulness to God that make all the difference, and I hope for all our sake it’ll be our faithfulness to God that will help us make the right choices in life. This is how we can live life without regrets! That’s what Jesus wants from us so we can have that abundant life.

Beware - A seed is sown

But, I am going to sow a seed in you all that will make you think about the choices you make each day.

What I am going to tell you is going to make you think about heaven and eternity, something that I feel that we don’t bother thinking about.

You see, when we reach heaven all these regrets that we once had will be a testimony that we will share with our fellow believers when we reach heaven. The mistakes that we made and how God corrected our paths. How He lead us.

You can imagine a beauty and perfection, everyone living in harmony with God and His creation.

We think that this is truly living right?

Imagine uncle Bob comes to you and says, “Fabian, I am so glad you’re here, we’re going to spend eternity with Jesus and with auntie Susan, by the way, remember when I passed away on earth and I told you to share the gospel to your auntie, did you do that? Where is she by the way?”

“Ah, uncle Bob, you see, well, I’ve been so busy with life and church, I’ve been doing all these things, I forgot about auntie Susan, and well, she passed away and I never got a chance to share the gospel with her? But hey, meet my family.”

Imagine when we’re in heaven, if you will, as you reflect back people you’ve had the opportunity to share Jesus to, but didn’t because you were busy with life.

Now, the thing is, regrets on earth is temporary we can look past that and see how the Lord led, but when Jesus comes, regretting that we didn’t share Jesus to someone who needs it will be eternal.

Of course, God will give that person plenty of opportunity to know more about Him, but we shouldn’t make that as an excuse for us to not share Jesus. God would have picked you for “...such a time as this.”

You want to live life eternally without regrets, then start sharing the gospel, start sharing Jesus to as many people as possible because Jesus is coming and we are called to prepare a people. Who have you prepared? Who have you called to meet with our Saviour to know Him personally?

It is to you to ask the Lord to lead you and guide you, to make the right choice and lead that someone to the Lamb of God. To be faithful in the talent that God has bestowed upon us to point to Jesus.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to give Bible studies or baptise them, but what seed are you sowing that will make them think about Jesus?

Friends, I don’t want to to terrify you, but if you want to live eternity without regrets then share Jesus to as many people as possible. How sad will it be when we had the opportunity to share Jesus to someone, to sow that seed, only to find that we didn’t, a devastating missed opportunity.

Conclusion

In the movie ‘Schindler’s list’, where in the end Oskar Schindler, after creating a list to save around 1,200 people, looks at his belongs and is upset because he could have sold them to save more lives.

We don’t have much time on this earth my friends, we’re all on borrowed time, I hope that we can use that time in working the field and sowing the seeds and share the good news of salvation.

Romans 13:11–14 NLT

11 This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Friends, the regrets of this world, I can’t fix for you, but for eternity wouldn’t you want to bring as many people to meet Him?

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. That is what eternity should be like, a day of rejoicing for you have fulfilled your duty and utilised your talents.

Then the Lord will say:

Matthew 25:23 NKJV

23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Go in the name of the Lord and share Jesus, follow His Spirit and sow the seeds that will lead to salvation and regret nothing.