Let It Go (4)

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I will make up to you for the years that the...locust has eaten
JOEL 2:25

Fourth, let go of what you failed to do! 'If I could just go back, I'd...' The poet said, 'The saddest words of tongue or pen, are these, we hear, "It might have been.' Not one of us escapes the long shadow of 'opportunity missed.' We fail more frequently by what we didn't do than by what we did. We could have helped, healed, blessed, changed things for the better. But by pursuing our own interests we left words of love and gratitude unspoken. Avoiding unwanted consequences, we left the awkward truth unacknowledged. Evading the label, 'religious nut,' our witness remained mute. A responsibility unfulfilled, a decision sidestepped, an ageing parent neglected, a child crowded out, a spouse excluded. 'How different my life could have been if I'd pursued my education, accepted that promotion, made that investment, relocated, or taken a chance on love.'

When the door is closed, the person's gone and the opportunity passed, it's time for: a) letting it go. The same cross that cancels your sins of commission, cancels your sins of omission too. Confession, not remorse, brings God's forgiveness and cleansing from 'all sin' (1John 1:9) b) renewing your faith in the God of second chances. He can 'make up to you for the years that the locust has eaten' (Joel 2:25). Believe Him; He can place you where you'd be, had the opportunity never been lost c) asking God for a new dream, then 'forgetting those things (old, sabotaged dreams) which are behind and reaching forward to those things (new dreams)...which are ahead, press forward,' to a life of restored opportunity and fulfilment (Philippians 3:13).

Used with permission from UCB Word for Today. Free issues are available here for the UK and Republic of Ireland.