LIVING IN THE LOVE ZONE – LIVING WITHOUT REGRETS

As we continue in the living in the love zone series, I thought we would consider a topic that plagued me for many years, regrets. I am certain if I could speak to you on a one-to-one basis you might share the regrets you have experienced in your life with me. Living with regrets is such a powerful force, it gets woven into the fabric of our life decisions without us been aware, sucking joy and pleasure out of our lives without us even recognising it. To live with regret is to believe that the present and the future does not matter. It is to believe that the past defines us and cannot be a teacher.

Regret is defined as the following:

To feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over (something that one has done or failed to do). To feel sorrow for the loss or absence of (something pleasant). Feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over an occurrence or something that one has done or failed to do.

Synonyms include Remorse, Sorrow, Repentance, Penitence, Guilt, Shame, Self-accusation, Self-condemnation; Sadness, Disappointment, Dismay, Unhappiness, Dejection, Lamentation, Grief, Mourning etc.

Living with regrets is different from healthy and necessary remorse when we make mistakes and our actions short fall of what is expected. Living with regrets is far more insidious it is constantly looking at your life through the lenses of regret. This is far more debilitating, sneaking in on you slowly and unconsciously, sapping the joy of living, weaving its way through the threads of your life and forming a tapestry through which you live your life and make decisions about your life, basically shouting HOPELESS, IF ONLY, TOO LATE, I WISH I HAD, and the list goes on…

My Story

Over a period of five years, I encountered some difficult life situations, and as a result of these, I made the decision to stop living with regrets. I came to the realisation, that life is not a rehearsal, this is the only life I get to live. This season led me to find out more about living life to its fullest. I came across several scriptures that further encouraged and strengthened my resolve to enjoy my life and stop looking back at what could have been but to start looking at what is and celebrate it.

Some of my struggles in this area were linked to choices that I had made, not necessarily bad choices but some of these choices had not resulted in the outcomes that I had expected and I found myself thinking if only I had. A good example of a choice like this was waiting for a number of years after getting married to have children and subsequently not yet been able to have the number of children I thought I would have.

For someone, it might be a decision they made about their career, relationships, finances, health etc, the decision to keep going over what could have been has left you in a place of inertia, where you are unable to enjoy or make the most of what you have. During this season of wrestling with God and finding His desires for me in this area, I was reminded by Jesus that we deny the power in the resurrection when we believe that God cannot make new things out of the wrong choices we made in the past or even choices we made that are not going or have not gone according to our plans. Living with regrets is denying the power of grace and restoration that is in the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Living Without Regrets

I have found that, the single decision to stop living with regrets, has totally changed my life and opened my heart up in such a way that God is able to make a beautiful tapestry out of things that I thought were over. His resurrection power is coming up on things that I was sad about, by laying them down at His feet and believing that He makes all things new has been and continues to be a life changing experience for me.

Living without regrets is knowing that He is with me now and was with me even in the past and He can make it all work out for my good. Living without regrets is living life with the backdrop of No Regrets, the Redeemer and Restorer lives in me and He is alive. The scriptures I meditate on that have strengthened my resolve and encouraged me to continue to pursue living life without regrets include the following:

• Do not remember the former things Or ponder the things of the past.  Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 (AMP).
• And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new. Revelation 21:5A (AMP).
• And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. Romans 8:28 (AMP).
• “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have Him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in Heaven — and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all — life healed and whole 1 Peter 1:3-5 (MSG).

These are precious promises from God to us to live without regrets.