Joseph said this to his brothers after revealing his identity to them:
“So it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:8).
The lesson is that God was sovereign over the choices that the brothers made for Joseph; nothing that they did was outside the control of God. By inference, we can assume that in the same way, the choices that others make for use are also under God’s control.
But what about the choices we make for ourselves? Does it not stand to reason that God also knows about them and has considered them in his plan? Of course it does.
Why then do we beat ourselves up over the bad choices we have made? They were no surprise to God and he will use them to shape us into what he wants us to be.
Joseph teaches us that it is counter productive to burn calories over the bad choices of others, God anticipated them and used them to accomplish his plan. But should we not also learn that it is useless to get locked down in regret over our own choices? Remaining in regret is a dead end street (Tweet This).
History bears this out. Off the top of my head, the only Biblical hero that I can think of that doesn’t have something really embarrassing on his resume is Daniel. All the rest did things which would merit the attention of TMZ and others who expose dirt and intrigue.
Yet, those heros have been used by God to bring about the recovery of what was lost when Adam sinned. God used men and women who mess up like we mess up.
God remains in control and our bad choices cannot and will not thwart his plan. If you are in Christ and have confessed the sin, then it’s over, done.
Move on.