Oh…this week’s Five Minute Friday is a hard one. The word is REGRET!
To regret something is to feel sad, or repentant, or disappointed over something.
As the mother of boy who is particular in word usage, and the wife of a hubby who is much the same (but over the years has gained a lot of tolerance) it’s become more important to me to think through the words I say to make sure I am conveying what I want to, especially to a lad who hasn’t developed the same tolerance/understanding as his dad.
So when I see these three words: sad, repentant, disappointed… they mean different things to me depending on the context used.
To feel sad to me is not the same thing as feeling repentant. Sadness doesn’t denote change, it’s a feeling not an action, whereas repentance does. If we regret something we have a choice about how we deal with it…true regret is seen in change made doesn’t it? That is what repentance is. The seeing of something that makes one feel sorrowful and that sorrow causes regret over action which leads to repentance. It’s a one begets the other type of change.
It leads to the question of what then is regret in the life of a Christian believer.
What then is regret?
Does it lead to change? Or does it lead the “I’m sorry’s” without change? I can’t answer that question for other believers but I know what it does in my life.
Sometimes it leads to profound change. When like Ezra I am so shocked that my sin (that I hadn’t seen before) exists that it just stuns me and I make change as fast as I can. Leads to tears and self-recrimination and than acceptance at the Lord’s forgiveness.
Sometimes my regret doesn’t lead to repentance but more of a quick “I’m sorry Lord” and a short-lived feeling of sadness and a silent hope to do better next time. The regret is real, but it’s easily dismissed because I said I was sorry and thought about what I could do to make future actions different.
And then there are the times when I feel caught out in wrong doing and I find a way to justify my actions rather than accepting the blame that is indeed mine. There is no regret or repentance or anything like that. Just self-justification of how “it’s just a little thing” or “everyone does it” or “he made me do it” or …… you know how it goes. It doesn’t change what it is…. rebellion against God. No regret, no repentance….. perhaps some sadness that someone tried to tell me what I was doing was wrong… but more likely just a feeling of anger of How Dare They!?!?
These words are different
These words are different but they are connected. Sadness doesn’t always mean regret, but it can be the first step that leads to repentance because of the regret that sadness can often create. Here what God’s word has to say “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” 2 Corinthians 7:10 and “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out”. Acts 3:19.
How then will regret affect our lives?
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