The Camp of Regrets

I bet every person reading this  blog has had this experience at least once in their life. You are struggling with an issue and it keeps coming back to haunt you. You know God is probably dealing with you, but it won't go away.

For the past few weeks I've been hanging out in the Camp of Regret. I'm not a happy camper there; it's filled with old memories and I'm surrounded there with a poisonous mixture of disappointment and self-pity.  I go back in time to try to analyze and figure out why I made certain mistakes and how I can still try to make something right that went wrong.  I was making my bed this morning and rehearsing these regrets. Then I caught myself, and began to pray out loud, "Lord, pull me out of this awful camp! I know you don't want me here!"
Psalm 25:7: Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.

I took a shower, got dressed, fixed my hair, got John up and made us both coffee and breakfast.  Then we left for the worship service.  When the last strains of the worship music faded, the pastor walked up to the pulpit and began to preach.  He was serving up a banquet of Scriptures, all of which seemed to be just for me; a list of verses addressing our human tendancy to try to go back and somehow change our past and find a way to forgive ourselves.  "Beloved, you can't go back!" he kept exhorting.  "You can't undo what you wish you had not done and you can't fix what you regret doing! It's done! It's over! You have a new season before you!"

It was as if he had heard my prayer this morning as I made my bed. God was reading my mail! And the more this pastor kept encouraging us to set our sight and our focus on the future, the more I felt my soul giving up the burdens I'd been carrying. He reminded us that when we surrender to Yeshua all our past regrets and sorrows, they are gone for good and we are set free from this "detention camp" where we've spent way too much useless time and energy!

I do love it when the Holy Spirit speaks through someone to address the very thing that we are struggling with. He is calling His Bride to be focused on the Glory, the Joy, the Majesty, and the Wonder of His coming Kingdom where EVERYTHING will be made new!  

Isaiah 43:19: See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Rev. 21: 1-4: Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

What a thrilling new season awaits, just ahead of us!  The Bride must make herself ready. I'm driving away from the Camp of Regrets and  tearing the rearview mirror off my brain.

​Hallelujah!