The Redo Button

Ever wanted to press the redo button on your life?

Yeah, me too.

I remember when I was in college and the coach called me up to pinch hit in the varsity game.  I was so excited and nervous at the same time, wow this was my chance to prove to my coach that I could compete at the varsity level.

I remember the pitch, it was the perfect pitch, but I cast my hands just slightly and ended up popping the perfect pitch up.  Ugh....I failed.

I went home and thought about that pitch and how I cast my hands over and over again wishing that I could just hit the redo button, have that at bat one more time and take a line drive into left field instead of a pop up.

Many of us live with deep seeded regrets.  My at bat is not that big of a deal, although it stung at the time it doesn't bring me anymore pain, but maybe your regrets do.  Maybe its painful for you daily, because of something that you said to someone or something that someone did to you that caused a tearing apart of a relationship. Maybe it was a decision that you made that caused your life to go a completely different direction and you wish desperately that you could hit he redo button.

If you live your life full of regrets you'll find out that you will become a very unhappy person.  The truth is that our past can imprison us if we let it.  It happens quickly and before we know it we're held captive to what we wish we would have done or said or not said.

We let it define how we enter into new relationships or situations, we put up walls to protect ourself so the same thing doesn't happen again to us.  Or we live in fear of making the same mistake so we risk taking chances and never live with true freedom, but in bondage to our past regrets.

So, how do we get past fear and into freedom from our past?  How do we go about life being ok with our mistakes realizing that they're apart of a bigger plan?

If I could be really honest with you for a moment I have many fears.  I still kick myself for saying or doing things that I know are stupid, but I have come to a greater understanding that my life is not under my control. There is one who wants to heal me from who I once was and wants to make me a new person and free me from the regrets of my past and the ones of my present.

You know,its a funny thing really.  A lot of us want a redo button and that is exactly what Jesus Christ offers for those who would call out unto Him to rescue them from their wrongdoing and selfishness.  Claim Him as Lord, put Jesus in control of your life and in that moment He presses the redo button.  All your sin, gone.  "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" -Isaiah 1:18.

Then, the transformation starts to begin.  For me, when I began my journey with the Lord Jesus I knew that my life would never be the same.  I knew that something was different about me.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come"- 2 Corinthians 5:17

Now, ten years later I've seen Jesus heal me of my past regrets and my present ones too.  My joy and hope are found in Him alone.  Yes, my life might be exactly how I would have drawn it up, but I am content in God's plan for my life.  Whenever I try to take control I just make a mess of it anyways.

Want to press the redo button?  That's good.  You need it.  It's ok to admit that you don't have it all together.  In fact, until you do admit that  you need forgiveness because of the ugliness of your sin you'll never truly be made free. Your life was never meant to be lived alone.  We have to come to an understanding that we are a rebellious people.  We want control and we want our own way, but God offers a way for rebellious, selfish people to be made right with Him and have a new beginning.  For we know that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved"- Romans 10:13

Without a redo button we remain lost in our sin, but Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life without sin, paid the penalty for sin by satisfying God's wrath on the cross and conquered death proving that He was everything He said that He was and now He offers you a new beginning.  The thing is that you've got to let go of your life.   He's got the redo button, you need His forgiveness, won't you call out to Him?

Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners" Luke 4:18