Regret
Perhaps one of the most powerful emotions, always based on action or inaction, regret can stem into all sorts of sin, and is very dangerous. If you suffer because of an action, you regret it – yet the LORD says to “rejoice in your sufferings.” At the same time if you do not act when you need to, for example not sharing Christ with a non-believer and them dying the next day, you regret it. So it’s one of those things that is going to come up a lot.
Regret can emotionally drain you, it can eat you up inside in ways that nothing else can, and this can be a very destructive road, if travelled. The worst part is unless you know someone who shares the same level of regret it is often hard to heal. Let’s face it, there are many different levels of regret, almost like a “regret scale” from, I should have picked up the milk, now I have to go out again, all the way to if I was only a few minutes earlier getting home I could have stopped my child from falling in the pool and drowning. See what I’m saying, yes everyone regrets something, everyone is sorry that they did or didn’t do something, but unless that person trying to help you heal has experienced the same level or degree of regret, it’s easy to simply say “you just don’t understand or you just don’t get it do you?”
Luckily for us, we can connect with someone who has experienced the highest level of regret possible, because God knows what you’re going through because He has been there too. You might be saying – well God doesn’t make mistakes, how can He regret something. Well He did do something He regretted, although unlike us He has the power to change it after the fact. But He did experience regret, for one reason, and one reason alone, so that He could connect with His children and offer them comfort, so He could say “Listen son (or daughter) I know what you’re going through because I’ve been there.” Let’s look at this, and emotionally connect with God.
Genesis 6:5-7 – Then the LORD saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
This is a powerful insight into the mindset of God, He doesn’t make mistakes, but His emotions are portrayed here as if it was a mistake, this is done so that God could experience regret to be able to connect with us and offer us comfort, because like every other trial we’ve gone through, He has been there and knows what we are going through. This isn’t a situation where God “changes His mind” because that isn’t what He does, because He doesn’t make mistakes, but at the same time He was sorry that He had made man, because of the wickedness in man’s heart, however He did know this was going to happen, which exactly why it did, so God can say “I’ve been there, I know how you feel”
Lets step back and take a look at exactly what degree of regret this is though, for God loved man, and all His creatures, but at the same time was so sorry and disappointed in what man had become that He was willing to destroy us all. I’d say that’s about a 10 on the regret scale, so next time you have regret eating away at you, you can talk to God and say; God I know You’ve been where I am right now, and felt how I feel, and I take comfort that I’m not alone in this battle.
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