Let me share two stories about these ladies I choose to call Ariel and Maria.

Ariel grew up in a home where strong Christian values were the order of the day. Her parents did all that they could to raise her to be the well-behaved, cultured lady with good morals that she became. While her mates jumped around town and had all the ‘fun’, Ariel stayed home, helped with the family business and buried her head in her books. Then she got married but it wasn’t a peaceful one. Ariel couldn’t cope with the fights, quarrels and tension so, as she sort for peace outside her home, she picked up some bad habits that were never a part of her life. Gradually, those habits became her second nature until God, through her friend, rescued her. She is clean today but she is still ashamed of her ‘past’ and she feels horrible to have ‘that’ as part of her history.

Maria relocated to a new city and in her search for new relationships, she met a group of young men and women. She felt they were stable, influential and could help her settle in quickly, make the right connections, get a good job and so on. Well, it happened as she imagined it would, but all that came at the expense of her integrity and personal convictions. In the process, she lost money, valuable time and above all, her integrity and self-respect. She has been able to get off their grip but every day she lives with the regret of all that she lost, wishing that she never got involved with them in the first place.

These two stories are a representation of some of the things we encounter that gradually make us live with guilt and regret. Anytime the enemy wants to put us in a tight corner, he reminds us of unpleasant and shameful events in our lives – opportunities we missed, the former lifestyle we had, wrong decisions we made, wrong words that we have spoken, the wrong places we visited – the list is endless. His intention is to bring us to the point where we feel worthless, hopeless and this eventually causes us to give up.

Sending us on a guilt trip is one of Satan’s favourite things to do to God’s people, and it’s easy for him because he knows that most of us, if not all, have a past; we all have that one thing that makes us hide our faces in our palms, shamefully.

Let’s pause for a minute and think about some of the mighty men used by God in the bible.

👳‍♂️Saul; who later became Paul.

🧔Jacob; who later became Israel.

👴Abraham, who lied about his wife Sarah.

Also, think about Judas Iscariot 👨, the one who betrayed Jesus.

The difference between the first 3 men and Judas is that while they repented and decided to move on in their walk with God, despite their mistakes, it was not so with Judas. He was probably consumed with the feelings of guilt and regret. I guess he remembered all that Jesus did for him – all the kindness, love and mercy he received from Jesus. He was ashamed of himself. He commit suicide.

Allowing these feelings of guilt and regret to rule your heart is deadly. There is no sin or mistake that is new under the sun. This, however, is not an encouragement to continue sinning and making the mistakes; rather it is a reminder that we can rise above our mistakes and become all that God wants us to be. There is no pit that God’s love and power cannot pull us out from.

Here are a few things you can do to help you overcome that guilt and regret:

📌 Acknowledge that you were wrong. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances were at the time; whether you were vulnerable, naive, deceived or wrongly mentored. The bottom line is that you were wrong. Accept your mistake and take responsibility.

📌 Recognize that, ultimately, your life is between you and God. Whatever judgment He passes is final. It supersedes every other judgment and we all know that when we confess, he shows us His mercy; not His judgement or wrath.

📌 Stay away from anything and any one that is capable of making you repeat the same mistake. Confession doesn’t automatically mean you are strong enough to resist the temptation. We “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”

📌 Focus on becoming a better version of yourself. People and situations will always remind you of what you did or didn’t do. Your job is to stay focused on becoming a victor.

📌 Trust God to use that mistake to orchestrate His ultimate plan for your life. Trust Him to turn it around for your good and for His glory.

Meditate on His word . . . daily!

Remember – It’s never too late to retrace your steps. God loves you. It is not His wish that we perish, “but that all should come to repentance”.

You can rise again.