Live with no regrets

This past week I stumbled across the following qoute by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some
blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day.
You shall begin it serenely and with too high a
spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

I feel like this qoute relates very closely to how I feel about being a
Christian. I've never considered if it is neccessarily biblical to "live with no
regrets," as is the common phrase, but I've done a bit of looking up and I have
a hunch that this mentality does merge somewhere along the line with Christian
beliefs and convictions.

First, I think it is important to look at what the word regret means and actually refers too. The dictionary gives the following synonyms for regret: affliction, bitterness, concern, disappointment, grief, sorrow.

Now, how does this concept apply to our lives? Well, we are to have concern, ie, "regret" for our sins. Of course we are! When we sin, which we all surely will no matter how hard we try not to because we are far from perfect (read 1 John if your interested in hearing more about how sin plays into our lives), we should hope for what is called "Godly sorrow" which can help us to rightly feel bad for our sins and seek God's grace for forgiveness. Now this "Godly sorrow" term I heard for the first time in January when I was the Passion Conference. Beth Moore was explaining how when we sin, we should feel guilty about it in order to truly feel sorrow and genuinely want to seek forgiveness. She explained how sometimes we don't feel bad about or regret our sins, and in this cases we should continually seek and ask the Lord to give us Godly sorrow.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 7 it says:

"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret,
but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you:
what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what
alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every
point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter."

I think this is a beautiful passion, that gives us so much hope as believers and as people who walk by faith and try our hardest to live like Christ.

I searched Blue Letter Bible (an awesome reference tool for diving deeper into the word) for the word "forgive" and it was completely humbling and just truly amazing how many search results came back and how many times it comes up in the bible, literally HUNDREDS of times!! Here are just a few example of the greatness and power of God's forgiveness:

"Then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man
according to all he does, since you know his heart, for you alone know the
hearts of men." - 2 Chronicles 6:30

The Lord declares, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." -Jeremiah 31:34

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins
and purify us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9

To wrap it up, in Isaih 43 it says:

"Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past."

The entire chapter (it's not long, so I highly suggest you go find your Bible and read it or just google Isaiah 43 online and read it, you won't regret it!) is truly amazing. It talks about how God, the God of the universe who also created us, is always with us through no matter what we experience. It beautifully describes God's mercy and how great it is. My final thought is this: the reason God wants us to "forget the past", so to say, is because once we recognize our sins, repent and sincerely desire forgiveness for our sins after experiencing Godly sorrow for what we did, then it dosn't matter anymore, becuase that sin was forgiven when Christ hung on the cross 2,000 years ago. We have been forgiven and redeemed, thus we should go live and be joyful.