Mistakes...Ugh!
“God is faithful, and will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
Mistakes…you know those moments in your life that leave you full of regret. They keep you up at night filled with worry, anxiety, panic, guilt, and a need to explain yourself. I had one of those moments recently. I absolutely hate the feeling you get when you realize what a mistake you made, that feeling of being gut punched. All of a sudden it hits you and you can’t breathe. The panic overwhelms you and you break out into a cold sweat. Do you know what I’m talking about? Maybe you said something you shouldn't have said. You drove too fast and passed on a double line with passengers in your car. You made a poor financial decision for your family. You ate some old meat out of your fridge when you knew it smelled funny. Our mistakes can be detrimental to ourselves and others or they can be small and only affect ourselves. Either way there is a lesson to be learned from our mistakes.
A mistake is defined as an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgement caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, or insufficient knowledge. If you really think about it, most mistakes are caused by some form of temptation. You and a friend were drinking coffee and you were tempted to tell her what you heard about another friend. You were tempted to buy that new car that put your family strapped for money each month. You were tempted to drive too fast because you were late to get your kids to school. When we fall into temptation, mistakes are bound to happen.
”Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
Temptations and mistakes are a given. They are not planned occurrences that we are ready for. As a matter of fact, they usually come at the worst times. But, without a doubt, they will happen. Now that we can move past the point of knowing we can’t always prevent them, how do we deal with them when they do occur?
My typical way of dealing with mistakes initially is full out panic mode. I told you that recently I made a mistake in my life and I want to tell you how I dealt with it at first. I woke up in the middle of the night and sat straight up in bed. I was covered in sweat, my heart was racing, my head was spinning, and I was sick at my stomach. I was breathing heavily and tossing and turning in bed. I was thinking about all the bad things that could have happened from my poor decision making. Not only did I put myself in harms way but I put others in danger as well. My head was out of control with the worry of what could have happened. Of course my husband woke up and wondered what my problem was. I told him what I was worrying about and he said, “Stop worrying. There is nothing you can do about it now, it is already done, go back to sleep.” He was right, the mistake was already made. So what do I do now? It got me thinking about what we dwell on in life. We spend so much of our time dwelling on the past when we need to be dwelling on God and His forgiving grace.
“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.” Psalm 27:4-5
Instead of wasting so much of our time and energy dwelling on our mistakes, we need to dwell on the One that rescues us from our mistakes. Some of our mistakes have detrimental consequences to them, sometimes we are provided a way out with any bruises or scrapes, but every time we are taught a lesson through our mistakes and it is up to us if they make a lasting impression on our lives. No matter if we have to suffer the consequences or just learn a lesson, God is rescuing us in some way. Each rescue looks different but it is there.
I want us to look at four ways we can dwell on God instead of dwelling on our mistakes when they happen.
Prayer. Instead of worrying, losing sleep, panicking, or feeling full of regret and guilt; we need to go straight to God in prayer. Own your mistake by confessing it to God. Admitting your mistake can clear your head from all the regret and wanting to hide under a rock. Ask God to give you clear direction as to what you need to do to fix any problem you might have caused. Simply sit at His feet and accept the love that He has for you despite your downfalls.
Meditate on God. Sometimes my head is so filled with the “what if’s” that I cannot even pray. My brain is just jumping from one worry to the next. That is when I need to lay down, close my eyes, and only think about Jesus. It helps for me to breathe 4 counts in and 4 counts out. As I do this I say the name of Jesus over and over in my head. This clears my mind of the worry and brings me back to Him. This may take me 5 minutes or 20 minutes: it just depends on how far I’ve jumped down the rabbit hole of panic.
List ways God has saved you. Stop the worry immediately by bringing gratefulness to your mind. You can sit down and physically write out how God rescued you or you can list them in your head. No matter the circumstances after the mistake was made, you can always find the good that God has done for you. Sometimes you may need to look harder than other times, but the good is always there.
Worship. If you fail in all the other tactics, bringing your heart back to worshipping God will always work. Worship is the truest form of putting God first. You simply forget about yourself and you remember His glory, power, sovereignty, and majesty by singing praise songs to the the One and Only. You forget about the little control you think you have and are overcome with the full control God has.
Mistakes will always be there, we are human. If God was expecting us to be perfect, He would not have allowed us to make choices and there would have been no need for Jesus to come to earth and die on the cross for us. God created us and knows everything about us. We may not be prepared for our mistakes, but God is and He is ready to catch us when we fall. Dwell on Him instead of yourself and your past. The past cannot change but we can learn from it and not make the same mistake again.
Digging Deeper:
Read 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 about how we are to learn from the Israelites’ mistakes and how dwelling on our own mistakes can be a form of idolatry.
What is your immediate reaction when you realize you made a mistake?
How can you put your focus back on God and dwell with Him instead of worrying about what you have done?