The Inability To Undo

Decision making.

It comes naturally for some. Others, well, they’re still deciding what they want last week for dinner. Decisions are difficult thanks the weight we put on them. If we feel this decision is going to alter our future, albeit which college to go to, it carries a tremendous amount of weight. And yet for some of us, we try seven different outfits on before leaving the house.

Today’s blog though, deals with those decisions we don’t really think about and after making the decision, we quickly wish we had put some thought into it. Many will spend years and years, even a lifetime trying to undo a decision(s) they’ve made. All this inability does is bring us guilt or worse, denial. Sometimes we can’t undo something so we think if we just deny it ever happened, it’ll go away.

It’s been a couple years since I started this website, but when I first started, a couple of my blogs felt like pages out of my personal diary. I wrote two blogs (Own It, Is God Done With Me?) similar to the subject today that contained an important and life changing piece of advice. I have kept that advice with me and is just as fresh now as it was when I was first told.

Rather than repeat all that I’ve already said, I want to expound on it. Less of a diary, more of a biblical application. Less what I have to say and more what God has to say. So we have the inability to undo something. What then are we suppose to do with sin we regret? What then do we do with the hurt we’ve caused? The words said or unsaid? What direction does God give us? You may have the inability to undo something, but we serve a God who offers forgiveness and you’ll come to know that God’s grace is greater than man’s approval. Forgiveness doesn’t just naturally come to us though. It does in fact take some work on our part.

Repent

“The Bible commands it, our wickedness demands it, justice requires it, Christ preached it and God expects it.”

– Reverend Billy Graham

Repentance isn’t an option – it’s a commandment. If you want to come as close as you can to undoing something, if you don’t first repent of what you’ve done, it will be your undoing.

We have preached too often on the dignity of humanity rather than our depravity. We talk about our goodness rather than our wickedness. We have attempted to excuse ourselves rather than admit our guilt. I can remember tears staining the steps of the stage known as the alter because one’s joy in coming to know Christ, yet more and more churches are seeing fewer of this. This concerning trend stems from more and more people’s inability to accept blame for sin.

What is repentance? Let’s first see what it is not because it seems sometimes we get confused with it’s definition thinking that repentance means something it isn’t. Repentance is not remorse. You feel bad about what you did; that’s enough, right? Wrong. Judas felt bad after betraying Christ. His remorse led to his undoing when he took his own life. Own your mistake or your mistake will own you.

Repentance is not self-condemnation. You may hate yourself for what you’ve done and your inability to undo it, but that only opens the door to guilt and shame. Some ignorant person said many years ago and too many people retweeted it before there was a Twitter when they said, “Love the sinner, hate their sin.” Hate your own sin. Hate the mistakes you made. (Proverbs 28:13) Don’t compare it to what others have done to scale it on how bad it really is. Self-hatred though, leads to self-destruction, and it is wrong to destroy that which was created in God’s image. You can’t remain in hatred. Own your past, repent, and move forward. (Matthew 3:8)

What is repentance? Repentance is not a word of weakness, but a word of power and action. It is not an emotion, but a resolve. It is freeing and rehabilitating. Repentance requires conviction. Before we go seeking forgiveness, we must be convicted of what we did wrong. We have to know what we did wrong and own it.

Repentance requires contrition. (Psalm 34:18) Biblical contrition is not a shallow emotion. It is sincere regret over the mistake you made AND a sincere desire to walk a better path. (Matthew 26:75) With repentance comes change – a changing of your mind, a changing of your attitude, a changing of your ways. (2 Corinthians 7:10). If we are truly repentant, our will is brought into action and we will make a change in direction. (Romans 12:1-2)

So many are afraid of repentance because you fear what you are going to lose. Peter repented, and he became a rock in the structure of the Lord’s Church (Matthew 16:15-18). David repented, and he wrote the purest music in the book of the Psalms. Jonah repented, and a great city turned to God (Jonah 3:2-5). Jacob repented, and God made him an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-2). Paul repented, and God used him to take the Gospel to the pagan world. What are you holding yourself back from by refusing to own your mistakes?

Obey

How can we keep our ways as such so that we never revisit our mistakes in the past? You have to keep Him close. We keep Him close by keeping His Word close. (Psalm 119:9-11) Your actions will follow your thoughts. Are your thoughts filled with fear of the past or hope in the future? So many Christians have long been forgiven of their sins, but fail to forgive themselves, fail to follow after Christ and His teaching, and forever use their mistakes as go to’s for examples of what not to do when talking to others. You want people to forgive and forget? Quit talking about it. Change your thoughts – renew your mind (Romans 12:2).

If you lost a championship opportunity in your favorite sport, you can’t expect to ever be awarded another opportunity if all you spend your time doing is talking about the time you lost. From King David’s sin (2 Samuel 11-12), to the prophet Elijah’s breakdown (1 Kings 18–19). From Paul’s disturbing past (Acts 7:57–8:3) to Peter’s outright denial of having even known Jesus (Mark 14:66-72). Failure does not disqualify you. Failure is not a sign you can’t cut it. You can outgrow your mistakes, but we cannot give up. Do not allow failure to get the last word. Repent, and obey His Word. Repent requires you to speak and God to listen. He has kept that promise. Obedience requires Him to speak and you to listen. He has kept that promise also. Are we speaking when we are to speak, and listening when He wants us to just shut up and listen?

Keep Your Distance

As much as we want to undo something, the reality is, it happened – and because it happened, we must remember what brought us to that point and keep our distance from any sort of temptation that would end in the same result. If we want to undo something, we need to make sure we never redo it. (1 Timothy 6:11, 2 Timothy 2:22, 1 Thessalonians 5:22)

None of this that we’ve covered in this blog is possible without faith. We have to actually believe we are forgiven. When His forgiveness is complete, our sin is no longer remembered (Psalm 103:12-13, Isaiah 43:25).

We may have the inability to undo our mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you are unable to ever move forward. We must repent of our mistakes, obey His Word, and keep our distance from any temptation. Bottom line: Don’t give up. God is not through with you. Signing out for now. Talk to you again soon. Thanks for reading.