REGRETFULLY YOURS

November 15 

Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

​You don’t often hear people talk about their past sins or their regrets about their life as it was before they came to Jesus; our “pressing on”, as Paul puts it, convicts us instead to share the victories that Jesus gives. Nonetheless, every Christian has those regrets to some degree. I have four of them that stand out the most in my memory, and they all involve the same situation. 

​I first heard about Jesus in detail when I was 9 years old. Two ladies from a church down the street from my grandparents invited me to  Vacation Bible School. Secondly, a girl in high school who had already served as a missionary in South America tried to explain to me why she would not date me anymore because I was not a Christian. Third, a customer I helped when I worked at Montgomery Ward’s gave me the first Gospel tract I had ever seen. And fourth, a co-worker at a photo lab also gave me a tract, and even asked later if I had read it, and what I thought about it. 

​So, what do all of these events have in common? Each time, I had the chance to receive Jesus, and yet turned Him away. How I regret not taking the opportunity to live my younger years as a child of God! The blessings I could have had are gone forever. 

​But, I don’t regret that Jesus kept trying. He finally won me to Himself, and my forever will not be regretful, thanks to Him. 

​“[God] is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”   II Peter 3:9b 

Davy L. Troxel