Finding Peace Amidst Mistakes and Regrets
By Denise Bowman
“My sin is ever before me” (Ps. 51:3). Have you ever been there? All of us at some point have come face to face with our sins and felt the guilt and shame of disappointing our God, knowing we are separated from Him. It is a horrifying feeling. We pray fervently for forgiveness, but sometimes we still feel the weight and sorrow of our failings. How can we find peace with God once again?
First of all, we will never have peace until we take out the trash. Have we done everything in our power to make our repentance complete? If others were hurt or affected by our actions, have we asked for their forgiveness? If we are being influenced to sin by friends or coworkers, have we separated ourselves sufficiently from those who would lead us astray? If our sins stem from the internet, social media, or some kind of entertainment, have we cancelled the subscriptions, deleted the apps, turned the devices off, and created new habits that are a better use of our time? Jesus said if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, and if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out…but He didn’t stop there. He said to “cast it away from you” (Matt. 18:8-9). Don’t keep those temptations close by. In Acts 19, Paul preached to the people in Ephesus, and one group had been practicing magic. When they were converted, they were so determined to avoid their former ways that they burned their books in the street. While I’m not an advocate of book burning (I am a librarian, after all!), please appreciate the commitment and sacrifice of these people. Books in their time were precious, rare, hand-copied, and incredibly valuable. These people destroyed the things that might take them away from Jesus. Have we done the same? Our peace depends on it.
Secondly, we will never have peace until we build our faith. Sometimes it is difficult to imagine God’s forgiveness—our minds have a hard time comprehending the great mercy and compassion of the Lord. We may also be dealing with the consequences brought about by our actions, and doubt can creep in as we grapple with those. How can He forgive me? No matter how hard it is to fathom, the fact is that He DOES forgive. Consider Ps. 32:5: “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hid. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.’” And again, I Jn.1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Read Psalms 103:8-14; God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2) has promised to forgive. Do we truly believe it? Such is a practical test of our faith. Consider Hebrews 11. All of those mentioned in the “Hall of Faith” are given as examples of faithfulness, but they are also a testament to God’s great forgiveness. Each of them had their own weaknesses and sins, but because of their repentance and God’s grace, they could stand justified. David could still be considered as a “man after God’s own heart.” Peter could still be an effective apostle and an elder in the Lord’s church. Paul could still be God’s messenger to the known world. God forgives. The more we meditate on His word and the examples and promises there, the more we will find peace and confidence in God’s forgiveness.
Finally, we will never have peace until we get up and get busy. Satan would like nothing more than for us to curl up in a ball and do nothing but think of how horrible we have been. If we do that, Satan has won again! Dealing with our sin is unpleasant: “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11). We need to show our renewed commitment to the Lord by bearing fruit. Attend every worship service—don’t we have so much to be thankful for? Praise God, encourage your brethren, and let them encourage you. God gave us each other for a reason! Send a card or a text to spread some joy. Take cookies to someone who is shut-in. Volunteer to prepare Bible class materials or help teach, clean the church building, help with the communion preparation, fold the bulletin. Take the preacher’s wife to lunch. Invite your hairdresser or dentist to worship services. Write a thank you note to the elders. Find a young person and get to know them and build a relationship with them. Do the same with an older person or a new Christian or a new member in your congregation. There are so many things we can do every day to be busy serving like Jesus, and that makes it much harder for the devil to find a place to stick his ugly toe into our lives. There is great peace in working for the Lord because we know that “…our labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Cor. 15:58)
Take out the trash. Build your faith. Get up and get busy. And thank God for the peace offered through Jesus Christ our Lord. Won’t it be wonderful when we get to heaven, and we’ll be blessed with perfect, eternal peace? Thanks to God’s forgiveness, we can look forward to that with confidence!
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2).