When Regret Becomes a Gift

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father.’” (Luke 15:17–18)

Most of us know what it is like to wish we could go back and do something differently. We regret words we said, choices we made, or directions we took. Sometimes regret leaves us replaying the past, wishing we could change what has already happened.

Regret can also become something more. It can become a gift.

In Jesus’ story of the younger son, regret is part of what finally helps him see his life clearly. He has left his father, squandered what he was given, and ended up hungry and desperate. Then Luke tells us that he “came to his senses.”

For the first time, the son sees where he is. He recognizes how he got there, and he realizes where he needs to go next.

That is what godly regret can do for us. It interrupts the excuses we have made and helps us tell the truth about ourselves. Instead of simply wishing our circumstances were different, we can acknowledge the choices that led us away from God.

The son does not stay there, though. He gets up and heads home.

There is an important difference between regret and repentance. Regret looks backward and recognizes what went wrong. Repentance looks forward and begins moving in a new direction. As Stephen said Sunday, “Repentance is not emotion, it’s motion.”

We cannot change what we have already done, but we can decide what we will do next. Our next move can always be toward the Father.

We also do not have to punish ourselves before we come home. We do not earn our way back to God by feeling sufficiently guilty or proving how sorry we are. Jesus has already done what was necessary to make us right with God. We repent because we trust that God is good and that His ways are better than ours.

Regret does not have to keep us trapped in the past. In the hands of God, it can become grace that wakes us up, turns us around, and points us home.

Reflect

• Is there an area of your life where regret may be showing you something you need to see clearly?

• Are you more focused on regretting the consequences of a choice, or on how that choice affected your relationship with God or others?

• What would it look like for you to move toward your Heavenly Father today?

Prayer

Father, thank You that our past does not have to keep us from You. Give us the courage to see our lives clearly and to be honest about the places where we have gone our own way. Help us not to stay trapped in regret, but to allow it to lead us to repentance. Remind us that we do not have to earn our way back to You. Because of Jesus, the way home is already open. Help us trust Your goodness and take our next step toward You. Amen.