Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser
In life, every one of us is going to experience sadness, regret, disappointment, and anxiety, no matter who you are and where you live. These are the realities of this broken world, but we know they never come from God. Where do they come from? Sometimes we experience sadness and disappointment through regret. Regret is sorrow or guilt over something that has happened or something that we have done. Regret can also be a sense of disappointment over what has not happened, such as regretting wasted years, because of what you should have done or shouldn’t have done.
There are other reasons why we experience sadness, regret, disappointment, and anxiety. It could be the loss of someone, a personal failure, an unfairness or injustice, or a tragedy of life. We’ve all been there. Everyone is on some level of sadness, regret, disappointment, and anxiety. It seems that we all made mistakes in our past. There are things that we did that we shouldn’t have done, and there are other things that we didn’t do that we should have done. And so, sadness, regrets and disappointments affect us all.
And this is where many times we face regrets. When you are changing seasons in your life, or when you are going through a transition, it’s natural to look back. If you are completing school or college, or you are graduating from university or are about to marry, or you are transitioning from being married to being single, or going through a big transitional change in your life, it’s natural to look back and think you could have done things differently. Probably, you could have studied better or done things better, but learn to live without sadness, regret, disappointments, and anxiety.
What I’m doing with this message is applying the redemption that Jesus has provided for us to the soul, which is where sadness, regret, disappointments, and anxiety will be. You get saved and forgiven of your sins. You get spiritual rebirth for your spirit. We believe that by His stripes we were healed, and we apply that to our bodies, but also the soul is part of man – and that’s where regret, sadness and sorrow, disappointments, anxiety and grieve reside. But know this, we can apply what Jesus did to our soul so we can be totally free from these emotional experiences just like we are free from guilt. When you apply the word to your past sins, then you are free from sin and guilt. We can apply what Jesus did to our past mistakes, experiences and whatever has happened in our past and be free from any kind of emotional distress.
There may be areas in your past that when you look back on them, you may say oh, I’m supposed to feel that way because I think it’s going to be a scar on my life and it’s never going to be completely go away. God is not going to let your past affect your future. We are not going to be sorry for anything for the rest of our lives. The reason God can do that is because Jesus has already paid the price. We can apply these truths now and be happy. You can be happy again no matter what has happened in your past. You can take the word of God and apply it and be happy and be filled with joy. You have to get over the past if you want to go into the future that God has for you.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mat. 5:4 NIV).
In this text of scripture, Jesus gives a beautiful promise. ‘They will be comforted’. He doesn’t want us to be sad. He doesn’t want us to mourn and have sorrow and regret as part of our thinking for a long time. In the Bible, God repeatedly promises us that when we experience sorrow, He is going to give us comfort. God sees you in your sorrow, He knows your tears. God is with us and He wraps His love around us. In our darkest night God gives us hope. Psalm 30 says ‘weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning’.
" If you allow the Holy Spirit, He can provide strength when you are lacking it. "
You can be comforted today when you experience sorrow. When you mourn, God will comfort you. God sees those who mourn, and He promises to comfort them. He will bring healing to your heart when you grieve or experience disappointment or regret. He gives hope to those feeling hopeless, and strength to anyone feeling overwhelmed. He is so close to you in the midst of your sorrow, regret and disappointment.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).
If you allow the Holy Spirit, He can provide strength when you are lacking it. God will give you unexpected strength. You are the only person who can control your joy – don’t give that power to anyone else.
“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; nor be discouraged” (Deut. 31:8). Trust that the Lord will guide you out of any difficult situation.
How do you stop anxiety from remaining with you? How do you minister to someone who has anxiety? I will always refer them to Phil. 4:6-7.
6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”.
So, that peace will replace anxiety. Notice, He gave us some actions. He says pray about things causing you anxiety. Therefore, we get proactive. If we are neutral on regret, anxiety, sadness, depression, they wouldn’t change unless we get proactive. Things will begin to change when you get proactive and cause the necessary change as directed in scriptures.
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).
A person who is anxious and or has regret hasn’t cast his or her cares on the Lord. So, if you are anxious or regretting, you haven’t cast your cares, anxiety, or regrets on the Lord and that will keep you awake at night. We all have to deal with this.
Jesus said He can heal the broken hearted. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).
Can you imagine, there’s no doctor in the world who can heal the broken hearted. There’s no psychiatric in the world who can heal the broken hearted. There’s no surgeon who can operate and heal a broken heart. Jesus can heal a broken heart, and He is the only one who can. You can apply the word of God. The same Spirit of God is in us, He is in the word and people can be healed of broken heartedness today.
“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10).
There’s a sorrow that comes from the world, and many people will be dealing with this, and it produces death. In other words, there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t go back and fix it, and every time you think about it, it just produces sorrow, it becomes a chronic condition. This is the sorrow of the world, Jesus died to set us free from this. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:4 that “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”. Not only did He take our sins, not only did He take our sickness, but He also took our sorrows. That means He took our sorrows so we can be happy. That just makes me happy and to apply that to my past is supernatural. The word of God will work in your soul. Apply it to your situation today. You can live without sadness, regret, disappointments, and anxiety from today and even forever more.
