Regret: How to Move ForwardSample

Day 5: Growing in Grace

Growing in grace in relation to regret has a double meaning. 

The first one is to grow in the amount of grace you extend yourself. I am really hard on myself when I don’t make the best choices, and you might share that quality. We can know that God has forgiven us but still suffer from regret, if we haven’t forgiven ourselves. Remember that you are justified by your faith in Jesus and His works. You are not justified by your own righteousness and good decision-making. You are not perfect and God knows that. If He is not condemning you for something, don't condemn yourself. You’re not a better judge than God.

The second meaning is that God extends us grace so that we CAN grow. God’s grace gives us the time, wisdom, and resources we need to learn from our mistakes. Like David, we will sometimes not make the right choices. But we can learn from that and be ready to make a better choice at the next opportunity.

If we grow from our regrets, the mistakes we made will not be pointless. We can add value to those hard times. The sting of the past bad choice can be outweighed by the reward of correct future choices. This is even truer when we take the time to help others work through similar issues.

In the previous devotional, you thought about what you regret the most. Today think about what you would have done better. Consider it in the context of what you will do if faced with a similar situation again. If your situation is not one where you will get another opportunity like it again, think of how you could help someone else before they face a similar regret.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What is God trying to teach me through this regret?
• What could I do differently next time?
• How can I help or prevent someone else from having a similar experience?
• If there are things I can do differently in the future, how can I prepare myself for them?