6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Philippians 1:6 [NKJV]

Perhaps more so than at any other time/period in my life, I have spent the last two years plus of my life dwelling on the thoughts of regrets that I’ve had for a very long time. Basically, that involves every screw up I have ever caused, every single wasted opportunity, and every time that I’ve allowed myself to be distract by something when I should’ve been focused instead. Basically, every single one of my mistakes and failures. I had ended up in this state of being “frozen” in my life. I had frozen and I wasn’t growing or making any progress with my life. I’ve basically stopped moving (metaphorically speaking).

The one thing that I failed to do was to forgive myself and to remind myself that I’m not the only person on earth with mistakes and failures in my life. I’m not the only one that is living with regrets too. It took me a while to finally snap myself out of it. Well, actually, I think it was more of the Holy Spirit that kinda snapped me out of it and then I finally made a decision to really forgive myself so that I could finally take that first step forward again.

God isn’t Done with Us Yet

Today’s daily bread has been a sort of reminder that God isn’t finished with us yet. Even after we have made a serious mistake in our lives, or when we feel like we have screwed up big time; it is really important to learn to be kinder to ourselves. To forgive ourselves because we are after all, only humans. Yes, we will continue to make mistakes in our lives. Yes we will continue to stumble some times. But that is all just a part of life. In order for us to to learn, and to grow, we must first be willing to risk falling down. It is in falling that we also pick up important lessons that will make us stronger and better for it.

What matters in this lesson today, is that we understand that our mistakes, our failures, our worst screw-ups doesn’t spell the end of our lives. We need to remind ourselves that God isn’t done with us just yet.

¹² Not that I have already attained, or am I perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Philippians 3:12 [NKJV]

I was brought back to Philippians 3:12-14 today. A reminder that we are not done working on ourselves, the very same way that God isn’t done working on our lives (making us better every single day).

Doing the Work

As much as Jesus is the potter and we are the clay in His hands, it’s easy to forget that for God to continue working on us and through us, we must first be willing. Not only that, we have to also be willing to do some of the work ourselves.

It is why I love this topic today. It is a reminder that regardless of whether it is our personal growth, professional growth or even our spiritual growth, we both need to put in our own effort, and we also need God’s help if we want to effective in our growth.

Letting Go of Our Past

¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.

Philippians 3:13 [NKJV]

Trust me, I know that this is something that can be a lot harder for some folks to manage than it is for others. This is especially true for those of us that also struggle with some degree of depression or anxiety disorders. The difficulty of this mounts up because for us, it is a lot harder to let things go than others.

But as I live and breathe, I can tell you that it is possible to let it go. It is possible for us to move forward. But we must first learn to forgive ourselves. The thing about guilt is that it is not a constructive emotion. Yes, it is good to experience remorse, to be repentant for our mistakes, failures and screw-ups. But being repentant is also not just a noun, it is actually a verb. It’s about acting upon the lessons that we have learned from our mistakes and screw-ups.

So, I have learned that the best way I could honor those mistakes, failures and screw-ups in my life is to learn the lessons that they have taught me and make sure that I apply those lessons into my daily life going forward. It is by finally accepting that that I was able to take the first steps forward.

Today, and every single day moving forward, I’ll be reminding myself of all those lessons that I have learned. My mission/goal is to make sure that this next phase of my life will be better lived than the last 20 years of my life. While at the very same time, I will continue to remain humble, knowing that God will still be constantly working on me through different circumstances.

Personal Prayer for Today

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for speaking to me through Your word. I am grateful that You have helped me to deal with a lot of the unresolved issues in my personal life and past. I know that I have struggled with a lot of guilt and regrets for a long time. As a result of being fixated on my guilt, it has prevented me from moving forward with my life, to grow effectively.

For as long as I could remember, I’ve always felt that while I was still making some progress and improvements along the way, there was an anchor weighing me down. Today, I’ve learned to recognize that anchor as my guilt and regrets. Thank You that in recent times, You have also helped me to turn that sense of guilt and remorse into something more constructive, repentance.

Today, as I make the effort to write down every single lesson that I have learned, my hope is that You will constantly remind me on a daily basis not to forget those lessons. That I will not become complacent and allow myself to slip back into the old ways of thinking, or acting, or behaving. My hope/goal it to use those lessons to help ensure that I become wiser and also to lead a much better and a more fulfilling life.

I vow to give You all of the praise and all of the glory. In Jesus’ name I pray.

Amen.