Letting Go of Regrets: Finding Freedom in Christ (John 4 Devotional)

Why Letting Go of Regrets Feels So Heavy

Regrets. Yuck. Why do they raise their ugly heads and stay around too long? If only I had a button I could push and they would vanish, never to be stared at again. But, alas, that is not how God designed us.

If you’re like me, you have to fight the regrets from taking over, from defining you. Fortunately, God gave us weapons to do this (much better than a button) and an encounter that Jesus had with an unnamed woman at a well in John, chapter 4.

Jesus and the Woman at the Well: A Story of Freedom from Regret

When the chapter opens, we see Jesus traveling. He has a mission to meet a Samaritan woman at a well and to set her free.

This woman, who is never named, comes to draw water. It’s noon, the hottest part of the day. Nobody goes to the well at noon. But that’s the point.

Jesus begins to converse with woman. He starts by asking for a drink (could anything be more indicative of Jesus’ humanness? He was weary and thirsty), and gently leads her to confront the sin that Jesus knows all about: she has had 5 husbands and is now living with a man who is not her husband. Hmmmmm. Is this a prophet? Could this be . . .? She’ll tell Him what she’s been taught: “I know that the Messiah is coming.” Jesus doesn’t just confirm this,

He says, “I who speak to you am He.”

What It Means to Put Down Your Water Jar (Letting Go of Shame and Regret)

Just then the disciples come back from buying food and that’s the woman’s cue to leave. But what she does next is what I want us to notice. She leaves her water jar and goes into town. The water jar represents the woman’s identity. She carries it with her to go to the well at noon, when nobody else will be there. She doesn’t want to be pointed at, whispered about. It’s easier to battle with the heat.

How different is Jesus! Not only does He do none of these things, but He is not in the least repulsed by this woman, not ashamed to be seen with her. He is kind and has kindly confronted her. The water jar is the sin and shame she carries with her. But she puts it down because the Messiah has revealed Himself to her and she has new water now, living water that

“will become in her a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14).

Now she has a new identity. She doesn’t have to carry her mistakes, her burdens, her regrets anymore. The woman “left her water jar”. But look at where she immediately goes: into town. She tells the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

From Regret to Purpose: Sharing Your Testimony

The woman is already an evangelist! And she goes to the very people that she has worked hard to avoid.

“Come see” the Man who has set me free, who has taken my sin and regrets away!

Bible Verses to Letting Go of Regrets and Shame

I wonder. What are some of our burdens, our regrets, our guilt that we still carry with us?

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “. . . anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

What is gone? Our old life with all of its mistakes. Do they still raise their ugly heads? Of course. But we have the Truth, which is able to knock down those regrets. Scripture is more powerful than our thoughts. We can open our Bibles and remind ourselves that

“As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions (our guilt, our regrets) from us” (Psalm 103:12). Or Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

It is no longer my past that lives. I now live my new life by faith – taking God at His Word that I am completely forgiven.

How to Let Go of Regret Through Prayer and Community

We also have prayer. When I notice those pesky regrets (sometimes not so pesky), I take it to God:

“Father, You know me. You know all of my past, my mistakes. You have called me to walk by faith, to take You at Your Word. Help me now to live in the truth that I am a new person, that my past does not define me. Help me to put my water jar down.”

And we have each other, the community that God has given us. Call a sister in Christ, reach out to Coffee and Bible Time and ask for prayer, reach out to a mentor. Tell her that you have picked up your water jar again and would she pray for you.

Letting Go of Regrets: Walking in Your New Identity in Christ

When we are consumed with our past we are paralyzed. We get stuck. Satan loves that. He doesn’t want us to experience freedom. He wants us to forget to drink from the Living Water. Think of what would have happened had the woman not embraced the truth about her freedom in Christ; had she not put down her water jar. The town would not have had a witness; would not have heard just enough to go to Jesus themselves (John 4:42).

May we learn to put down our water jars and live in this truth.