22 May 2022
If you have no regrets, then you have learned nothing. We are fallen creatures and perfection is not possible in this life. A load of human regret is the best anchor on unrestrained folly. If your convictions do not keep you on your face before God, you have no conviction.
Conviction is reality. When you turn to your convictions, you are turning to the Holy Spirit. Your convictions were written on your soul before birth; they are the imprint of God Almighty on your soul. It's the same picture as God writing with His own finger the tablets Moses bore down from Mount Sinai. The purpose of a law code is to awaken the awareness of your fallen nature, so that you begin the process of pulling away from it. That means turning to your heart where convictions reside.
Regret is an alienation from your fallen fleshly nature. Regret signals your awareness of your convictions. You cannot be free from false regret until you dive into that dark pool and turn on the lights. This is why we keep coming back to the written revelation of God, because peeling back the layers of falsehood takes the rest of your life. Your goal is to get a clear view of what's written in the stone tablet of your heart.
But the whole image includes reducing future regret by learning to obey your convictions. The idea is to avoid new regrets. We need to understand, not so much the words as grammar, but to understand how regret is tied to guilt, remorse and shame. A major element here is to be ashamed of your failures, but to have no shame walking into the future. Yes, you must settle the debts of the past, but that's so you can walk away from them. There is valid shame, regret and remorse that leave scars, but the divine revelation presumes you will glorify the Father with them.
You see, Jesus still wears His scars of shame from the Cross. They are now His marks of authority. It works the same with you. Once you have settled the costs of sin, you have authority to walk in your convictions without shame, and without new regrets. They no longer own you. Those things restrain the flesh, but they cannot afflict your convictions. You make them impertinent in new situations.
This is a critical element in who we are in the Kingdom of the Messiah. We are people who face our sins and wear the scars proudly. This is why we proceed with no shame; the price has been paid.
Get to know your convictions. They are never wrong, even when things don't turn out as you expect. You never need to apologize for obeying your convictions, no matter who else gets hurt. They get hurt because they have rejected their own convictions and cling to lies. They stand in your way because they stand in Christ's way, and there's nothing you can do about that.
You need to get beyond the slogans. If you can put something into words, it is at best a partial manifestation of truth in context. Words alone can never be truth itself. Don't stand in the prison of regret. Separate your true self; let regret be the anchor of your fleshly nature. Let guilt, shame and remorse tie your flesh down while your convictions walk freely.
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