I would venture to say that if you are honest, very few people could look back on their life choices and declare…Oh well, what’s done is done and just haphazardly moved on.

According to a recent article in Reader’s Digest, in 2020, a World Regret Survey was conducted among 15,000 people in 105 countries and 82% of them said that harboring regrets was at least an occasional part of their life; 21% said they feel regrets all the time, and only 1% said they never feel regrets.

So, I invite you to take a moment to quickly look back on your own life and identify a situation or circumstance that you wished you had done differently. Examples could be finished college, or declined a marriage proposal, or had a baby, or asked for forgiveness, or retract an outburst…etc.

The one percenters who said they never allow themselves to feel regret could be because they say that harboring that mindset is a recipe for unhappiness. But what they do not realize is just by extinguishing oneself from feeling regrets does not free them from shame and sorrow. In other words, that mindset still prevents them from getting a restful night of sleep. And it can also consign you to make the same mistake over again. Any time a situation makes you feel guilty, you need to deal with it and put it in its proper place.

Relationship councilors have identified four kinds of regrets:

• Connection Regrets – Relationships, family and loved ones.
• Moral Regrets – To violate one’s own values…pride oneself on being a loving person, truthful, Christian, etc. Or not living up to taking good care of oneself health-wise…like overeating.
• Foundation Regrets – You did or did not do something that affected the course of your life in a way you didn’t like…getting that diploma, etc.
• Boldness Regrets – These are those regrets that you could kick yourself for not taking a chance at life: Approaching another person, bought a lottery ticket…etc.

You must take the time to analyze and manage your regrets or it can be poison for your well-being. And we’re talking healthwise. Signs of harboring regrets are implicated (manifested) in depression and anxiety and can affect your hormones and immune system and can wreck havoc on your sleep patterns.

Biblical Solutions For The Problems Of Regrets

Sometimes it’s hard for you to analyze yourself. But first let’s see how Frank Sinatra identified and handled his regrets.

YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com › watch

0:22 In 1968, Frank Sinatra began recording the famous “My Way 

The holy bible says that regret is to show sorrow or remorse over something that has happened or that we have done. Regret can also be a sense of disappointment over what has not happened, such as regretting wasted years. In some places in the Bible, we read where God expresses regret over a situation he engaged in. However, we know that God does not make mistakes. But I learned from my pastor that to understand the true meaning of a principle or biblical doctrine, we must know the root of some words. And the Hebrew root word for regret is ‘to sigh’. So, when scripture references God’s regret, it is to be translated, God sighed…knowing that man would choose to be disobedient and would then have to suffer the consequences for sin. To be redeemed, all mankind has to do is to accept God’s Son, Jesus Christ!

Remember that God is omniscience…all knowing…! Man is not!

One of the greatest examples I could find in the Bible about how to rectify a regret between two people was found in 2 Corinthians 7:5-13. Both parties were really struggling with their feelings concerning a misunderstanding. I invite you to study those passages. You will see where neither Paul, Phillip nor the Corinthian people suffered any mishaps because God worked it all out.

How do you deal with regret and guilt in the Bible? In Psalm 51:1-2, the Bible tells us to confess our sins to God and that God will blot out the guilt from our sins. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin!”

5 Bible Verses to Help You Let Go of Past Mistakes and Regrets

• 2 Corinthians 5:17, God says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
• Isaiah 43:18-19, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
• Exodus 23:20, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.”
• Job 17:9, “The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.”
• Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

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