More Regrets?

Yikes! I thought we learned not to focus on our past regrets! Yes…yes, we did! I do hope the last post didn’t scare you away. It was hard to write the last post because, as I said, I tend to worry a lot and I am very good at holding on to those regrets. Hmmm, they seem to go hand in hand, don’t they? Worry and regrets…and anxiety…and…and…and…it can go on and on. We’ll have to look into that in another post. Hopefully it gave you food for thought and you were able to look at how you handle your regrets and how you can move on from them.

Yesterday we looked at the meaning of the word regret and what God says about hanging on to those pesky things. I pray that you continue to dig deep into Scripture and lean in to what God is whispering to you. Today let’s start by looking at what the Biblical meaning of regret is.

I’d like to pause here a second, for a moment of transparency. I have been trying to figure out how to put what I am learning from Scripture into your hands without it being completely overwhelming and confusing. With every new word and meaning God is showing me, I get more and more excited for us. I want to hand this information to you in a way that will not cause any more unanswered questions. I was sitting here contemplating how to do that when I remember my dear friend telling me that God is not the God of confusion. God…is NOT the God of confusion! IF you find this information to be too much I pray you’ll pause and remind yourself that He is not trying to confuse you. Please know that you can always go to BibleHub.com and research the word too, if you feel you need to study further. With that in mind…

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, so let’s start there:

According to Strong’s Concordance, the word regret in Hebrew means:

chemdah: desire, delightOriginal Word: חֶמְדָּה
Part of Speech: noun feminine
Transliteration: chemdah
Phonetic Spelling: (khem-daw’)
Definition: desire, delight

The New American Standard Bible give us this information:

Word Origin
fem. of chemed
Definition
desire, delight
NASB Translation
beautiful (1), choice (1), desirable (2), desire (1), pleasant (5), precious (2), regret (1), valuable (2), wealth (1).

Delight and desire, peasant…precious? That is quite a bit different than the definition we were looking at yesterday. These words are cheerful and bring a smile to my face. Let’s see how it is used: “He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed with no one’s regret (chemdah), and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.” (2 Chronicles 21: 20 NAS, emphasis mine). You can tell, just by reading this verse, that King Jehoram was not a great king and that no one desired (chemdah) to bury him, especially in the tombs of the other kings.

Jeremiah writes, saying God will, “…set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant (chemdah) land, the most beautiful inheritance of the nations!” (Jeremiah 3:19 NAS, emphasis mine)

These bring up so many different emotions than what we talked about yesterday. That’s good! This has me thinking that maybe we have been looking at our ‘regrets’ all wrong, that maybe there’s a different approach we can take when looking at the ‘what-if’s’, the ‘should have’s’ and the ‘shouldn’t have’s’ of our lives. Isn’t that great?! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to get out from under that cloud that hangs over us?!

While the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek. Which means, you guessed it, the word regret has a different meaning (this is where I do not want it to get confusing):

Strong’s Concordance: metamelomai: to regret, repent Original Word: μεταμέλομαι
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: metamelomai
Phonetic Spelling: (met-am-el’-lom-ahee)
Definition: to regret, repent
Usage: (lit: I change one care or interest for another), I change my mind (generally for the better), repent, regret.

NAS Exhaustive Concordance: Word Origin
from meta and meló
Definition
to regret, repent
NASB Translation
change his mind (1), feel remorse (1), felt remorse (1), regret (2), regretted (1).

I love the first definition, repent. To completely change the direction you were on. To realize what was done, or not done, and ask for forgiveness. That is the attitude that we should be taking with our past regrets. We should be using those moments as learning tools for the days ahead. What the enemy wants to use to hold against us, to hold us back, we need to allow God to use to change us, to allow us to grow.

“For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him; and ye, when ye had seen it, repented (metamelomai) not afterward, that ye might believe him.” (Matthew 21: 32 KJV, emphasis mine)

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the people in Corinth, wrote: “For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret (metamelomai) it; though I did regret (metamelomai) it – for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for awhile.” (2 Corinthians 7: 8 NAS, emphasis mine)

Okay, this is all extremely informative, but how does this help me? If you’re saying that to yourself, or out loud, take a very brief look at David and his actions with King Saul. David had been running for his life from Saul. David found the opportunity to sneak in to where King Saul was and cut off a piece of his robe. He was basically saying to him ‘I had the opportunity to kill you and didn’t take it.’ Later on, David has a change of heart, he had regrets about what he had done, “Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, ‘The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master…or lift my hand against him…’ ” (1 Samuel 24: 5 emphasis mine) He then went right back to Saul, told him what he had done and said he wouldn’t harm him (vs 10-11).

There it is. There is the key to lifting the heaviness of regret from our shoulders. We realize what happened and we make amends as best as we can. Like David and the Apostle Paul, we can delight in the fact that we can repent and move forward. There may be road blocks, it’s life; we may have a hard time loving ourselves for what our pasts hold, but God loves us deeply; there may be those who will not forgive us and we might have a hard time forgiving ourselves, but God has no trouble with that!

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion oh his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him…” (Psalm 103: 11- 13)

His love is great, his compassion is overwhelming and he takes away our sins to the point that we can no longer see them! Let us repent (metamelomai) of our regrets so that our Heavenly Father can give us the best life he planned for us. We can delight in the opportunity that God gives us a newness each day.

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” ( 2 Corinthians 7: 10 emphasis mine) Let us throw off the heaviness of regret that the enemy wants to keep us under; let us allow God to transform our lives and move past all of the shame that our sins bring with them. God does not want us to live in this pit of shame and regret. So how do we do that exactly? How do I get to the point of asking God for forgiveness, to be able to forgive myself and move on with my life? Ah, that is what we will discuss tomorrow. I do hope you’ll join me.

I pray that our God brings clarity to us today. I pray that He shows each of us what He wants us to learn from these verses. May we have a hearts that are tender to His word and His teaching. May we learn to delight in the fact that we can go to God and ask for forgiveness. May His love and peace surround us all on this journey!

See you on the front porch!