There's Always Something You Thought You Could Have Done To Make Things Better

Hebrews 10:17-22, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

I often am reminded of the phrase from Hebrews 10:19b, “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience...” Sprinkled with what? With the precious blood of Jesus of course! I love the lyrics of this Gospel hymn...

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain:

O precious is the flow

that makes me white as snow;

no other fount I know;

nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Dear reader, whatever sins, failures and atrocities may be in your Skelton Closet (and we all have one), by faith sprinkle Jesus' precious blood upon your past and move on for God. If you have trusted Jesus with childlike faith as your Savior, then you've been born-again and your sins are all under the blood. Please don't wallow in guilt for past sins that Christ has paid for with His blood.

Now, to clarify, if you've hurt people in your past, but still haven't sincerely attempted to make restitution and reconciliation to make things right, then you should feel guilty. If you've done your best to right your wrongs, then there's nothing more you can do except put the matter into the Lord's hands for judgment. There are people who have deeply hurt and defrauded me of tens of thousands of dollars throughout my life. They have never tried to reconcile with me. I have already forgiven them, for my sake so I can move on and live. Biblical forgiveness oftentimes means letting a matter go into God's hands for judgment, so you can stop worrying about the injustice for the time being, trusting God's solemn promise that He will avenge you (Romans 12:19-21; 1st Thessalonians 4:6; Matthew 12:36; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Matthew 7:1-2; Romans 14:10-12; Galatians 6:7; Proverbs 24:12; Hebrews 4:13). I assure you friend that NO ONE ever gets away with any sin, crime or injustice; God sees and will judge all.

About 25 years ago at work one night (I worked the ungodly graveyard shift for seven miserable years from 1993 to 2000, I read the following sign posted by our Part's Department, which made an impression on me that I have never forgot:

There's Always Something You Thought You Could Have Done To Make Things Better

I love that statement! When I first read that truth it encouraged my heart, because we all live with a certain degree of guilt for past failures, sins, bad decisions, doing nothing when we should have taken action, and shortcomings. As we grow older especially, regrets start to creep into our mind and convict us. I humbly think that is why the older folks departed first in the true story of the woman caught in the very act of adultery. The Jewish religious leaders wanted to stone her to death per Moses commandment, and they asked Jesus what He thought about the matter. They were trying to entrap Jesus in a messy situation, to wrongly accuse and prosecute Him to death. When Jesus wrote something on the ground with His finger (we don't know what He wrote), the inspired Holy Bible says from the eldest to the youngest they departed. Here is the biblical account...

John 8:1-11, “Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

I have often wondered what Jesus wrote on the ground, but my guess is that He either wrote, “Where's the man?” or He simply drew the symbol of a man and they figured it out. They claimed that they'd caught her “in the very act,” so then why didn't they also bring the guilty man to Jesus? Why did they only condemn the woman? Their sin of self-righteousness was greater than her sin of adultery! In this historical moment we see Matthew 7:3 in action, “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” What ungodly hypocrites!!!

No matter how much we may try to do things a better way, we still mess up. Thousands of times throughout my lifetime I have regretted in hindsight that I didn't do something a different way, or word something differently than I did, or should have spoke up when I stayed silent, or should have kept quiet when I ran my big mouth and made things worse, et cetera.

I am very forgetful. If it's out of sight, I will forget to do it, or forget about it. I actually have a policy that I started several years ago for myself, that I never allow my car's fuel tank to get lower than half full. I have to do that or I may run out of gas on the road. I've actually had that happen to me in the past, running out of gas on the highway because I forgot to full my tank. I have to set email reminders to pay my credit card, or I will forget. I am just a flawed human being made of the dust of the earth. I have so many regrets in my past, things that I wish I could erase from my memory, but I cannot. But I can sprinkle my past sins, failures and regrets (i.e., an “evil conscience” as the Bible says in Hebrews 10:19) with the precious blood of Jesus, My God and Savior.

There is always something that you thought you could have done to make things better. Don't beat yourself up for being human. We've all blown it big time in the past. No believer is a shining example to the rest of Christendom of what a saint should be. No one! The only person who is sinless is our blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:15). 1st Timothy 5:24, “Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.” That Scripture is saying that some believers do a good job of hiding their horrible sins from others, but the sins are still there! One day in eternity those gross sins will be manifest for all to see, so that NO ONE will be able to boast of what a great Christian they were while on earth. I echo the words of King David in Psalms 106:6, “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.”

Thank God for the gift of His dear only begotten Son, Jesus, who shed His blood on the cross and sprinkled that literal liquid blood on the heavenly Mercy Seat (Hebrews 9:12), on our behalf in the presence of God the Father (Hebrews 9:24; 12:24). Romans 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”