No Reserves No Retreat No Regrets

Session 3: No Regrets • 57

Regret is the enemy’s attempt to get us to believe that our past mistakes label us effectively as a “screw up,” that our current condition is pretty much “jacked up,” and that our future will inevitably be “messed up” because of who we are and what we have done. He uses his entire arsenal of lies to convince us that we are a disappointment, that we have basically missed out on an even a better opportunity at a full life in Christ.

Don’t you dare believe it.

As soldiers of Jesus Christ, called to Kingdom advance, we possess . . .

• No Reserves: we surrender all to Christ, without conditions • No Retreat: we stand our ground for Christ, no matter what • No Regrets: we lose everything for what really counts, without disappointment

I. Set the Stage: Why do we suffer from the pain and shame of regret?

Looking Back, Looking Over: Defining Regret

The general meaning of the term regret is to feel sorrow or remorse for an act, fault, or disappointment usually beyond one’s control or power to change, correct or repair. To regret is to feel the pain of living with the reality that you could

have done things differently, become more than what you have become, accomplished more, done less harm, and fulfilled dreams and tasks that now are no longer attainable. To regret is to be haunted by the thinking that flows from the phrase, “If I had only . . . , then things would have really turned out differently.”Regret is an expression of the distress caused by being deeply convinced that a past act or situation must affect everything you will ever do, and that you simply can no nothing about it. Don’t believe it.