Finding our Way through the Wilderness

2 Corinthians 7:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

Day Thirty-Five

Regrets

I am at a standstill. I have fallen victim to my heart's selfish desires. Follow my own will and not the Will of my Lord and Savior. I have played this game before and each time I come up with the same results, regrets. Although the regret is not enough to stop my actions when the temptations arise, no it is easily forgotten as is the pain that comes along with it. I want to change and need to change but if I'm to be truthful, I don't know how to change. So I prayed before I wrote these words and here is where God led me.

First of all the regret that I am feeling comes from a worldly sorrow. Like the text above says this only brings death. Worldly sorrow is when I feel bad for after I have sinned. This "bad" feeling in turn causes regret which in turn causes self-condemnation, which in turn makes me separate myself from God, which then separates me from the Holy Spirit, which, because I am separate from the Holy Spirit, leaves me accessible to the same or different temptations, thus renewing the never ending cycle. This is how I had been taught or how I taught myself to repent. God has showed me that this is the incorrect way to repent and, again, it only leads to death.

Colossians 2:23 tells us that self- imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. God led me to this scripture to let me see that everything that I thought I was doing right was wrong. I had done all of those things condemned myself, hated myself, denied myself, and separated myself and nothing work I would still be trapped in the never ending circle of sin and regret.

When I condemned myself I give myself a false sense that I was good again and that I had the power to stop myself from sinning. This is ignorance on my behalf, because only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we deny the flesh. By saying anything other than this, we discredit Jesus' dying for our transgressions because if we could handle it ourselves than he needed not to die.

So after seeing these words I prayed to God and to show me the right way to repent without regret as the scripture said.

To truly repent I had to stop trusting in my own quilt to cause me to stop sinning and start trusting in the fact that Jesus died for my sins. Each time that I sinned I should go closer to Him instead of pulling myself away from Him. I need to start to believe in the power of the cross and the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus and stop believe that I could make myself righteous by my own reactions. This is Godly sorrow because it brings true repentance and salvation.

So while I still do regret my past sins and the pain that they have caused, I no longer use it as atonement or as a way to repent. I will now trust only in the blood of Chris and its healing power. Trusting in the Holy Spirit to separate me from the desires of my flesh and direct me into the will of the Lord.

I will do this by retraining my heart and the way that I think about and react to sin. If you are having this same problem I encourage you to ask God for answers, I promise you He will lead you right to them just as He did for me.

I end by saying, though I am not perfect I am no longer at a standstill. I am moving forward pressing towards my prize which is granted to me by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

God Bless