Regrets

Before his death in 1985, famed actor Yul Brynner made a video, which aired posthumously.  In this 30-second appeal, Brynner urged smokers to quit.  At one point in his life Brynner smoked five packs of cigarettes a day.  The star, especially known for his stellar performances in the “King and I” and the “Ten Commandments,” expressed deep regret over his life-long habit.

“Good Morning America” first aired the video wherein the 65-year-old actor claimed that cigarette smoking was the culprit that prematurely stole his life.  Lung cancer had worked its deadly toll.  The tone of the video was that of deep regret.

Regret.  It’s not my favorite word.  It ranks up there with the word, “If.”  Both inspire a sense of deep sadness.  Both speak of what might have been.

We all have regrets – things we wish we could change if we had it to do over.  Things we would not say or do.  But the fact of the matter is we can’t undo anything!  And this is where Satan does some of his most damaging work.  He loves to use past regrets and mistakes against us.

He downloads our past, clouds our present realities, and wants us to continue defining our future by our past.  It’s brutal! 

I have good news!   We do not have to be prisoners of our past.  Our past sins, mistakes, failures, and poor choices no longer have to be a ball and chain about our feet.  John Wesley included these words in his beloved hymn, “O, For a Thousand Tongues:”  “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”

The blood of Jesus cancels the hold of our sin – past, present and future.  We have been forgiven because of His perfect and shed blood.  One of my all-time favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 5:21.  Paul writes, “For he made Him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

This verse challenges our propensity to allow past regrets and failures to haunt our “todays and tomorrows!”  Not only have we been forgiven, we now have become righteousness.  We are no longer defined or shackled by our regrets, but we ARE righteousness.  He is Christ in us, the hope of glory!  We no longer see ourselves through the lens of our past, but WHO He is in us!

We have been forgiven!  God casts our sins into His Sea of Forgetfulness (Micah 7:19), and remembers them NO MORE.  God through Christ declares us to be righteousness.  Our past sins, regrets and failures can no longer be held against us.  Our Great Advocate, Jesus Christ, declares us “NOT GUILTY” at His bar of justice.  Our past, when placed under the blood, can no longer indict us today.

How about you?  How many times have you allowed the enemy to bring up past regrets and use them against you?  I have and often!  But when I remind God of my sins, He says to me, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  For you see, He now looks at us through the blood of Jesus and declares that we are righteousness.  We are not what we used to be.  We are who He declares us to be – righteousness.  God literally has amnesia when it comes to our sins!

We are no longer held captive by our past sins and regrets, but are new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Regrets be gone!  We are now righteousness and a new day has dawned, one that is not driven by regret, but rather free from sin’s stronghold.  Do not allow past regrets to imprison you.  You are free in Jesus’ Name!