It's so easy to look back, however, and choose to regret rather than choose to rejoice, isn't it? I regret that I didn't faithfully have devotions with my children or pray with them every night. I regret that I didn't love and encourage my husband as I should have. I regret that I didn't love others unselfishly but rather loved myself far, far too much. I regret that I didn't worship more and worry less. I regret that I didn't pray more and pout less. I regret that I wasn't as disciplined with my time as I should have been and wasted far too much on frivolous, vain, and empty pursuits. Well, and I regret that I bought way too much take-out food and cooked far too few good meals that we could eat together at home as a family. I regret that I didn't regularly write and tell and show my husband and children how much I adore them and what priceless, wondrous treasures they are in my life. And I regret that I didn't consistently make the time to love and enjoy and encourage my friends--also irreplaceable gifts in my life.
O Lord Jesus, I have so, so far to go. I'm a great sinner...but You are a great, great, great Savior.
But here's the thing--we all have a choice. Yes, a choice to regret and wallow in our failures and misgivings and missed opportunities...
Or a choice to rejoice in God's incredible goodness and grace to us, even in the midst of our misses and mess-ups...and to press on.
Because we have a God who commands us to hand Him our regrets and sins and failures. Hand them to Him and see the glorious, hallowed shadow of the cross towering over them all. Hand them to Him and remember that Christ's blood covered them all. Every single one of our sins and regrets and failures.
Incredibly, unbelievably, in Christ our Savior, we are forgiven for the past. Forgiven...and therefore freed to look to the future...to press on in Him and thru Him and for Him.
"But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil.3:13-14)
Forgiven...means forgetting and then forging ahead in Him. Pressing on.
Pressing in and pressing on. Pressing in closer to my Savior who calls us to abide in Him, to follow Him and to daily experience His resurrection life. No, we can't do this on our own. I can't make 10 New Years's resolutions and keep any of them. I'll break 9 of them before 10:00 this morning!
But "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil.4:13) I can love through Him. I can encourage and strengthen my husband and children and friends through Him. I can die to my stinking selfishness and give, serve, and love joyfully and fully and freely through Him. Well, shoot, I can even cook more home-cooked meals and get rid of that ever-present clutter through Him.
It's time to stop regretting and start rejoicing...and then pressing on. In Him.
Pressing in and pressing on--great words for the New Year. For we have a great, gracious, and glorious God leading the way and urging us onward. Let's press on in Him. To God be the glory.
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