Overview

1. Don’t live in regret or worry
2. Live in God’s now
3. What His help looks like for us today
4. God’s purpose for us in the present

Don’t live in regret or worry

Many of us know what it is like to replay the past in our minds. We think, If only I had done this differently. If only I had made another decision. If only things had not turned out this way.

Regret has a way of pulling us back into moments that are already over. We go over the same conversations, the same decisions, and the same disappointments. Before long, our minds get caught in a loop—blaming ourselves, beating ourselves up, and trying to change something that can no longer be changed.

That is not how the Lord wants us to live.

The past may contain real disappointments and pain. But continually returning to it only keeps us living there, in that pain and disappointment.

In the same way, many of us know what it is like to worry about the future. 

What if this happens? What if that doesn’t happen? What if I lose my job? What if this situation never changes? What if the thing I am hoping for never comes to pass?

These can be very real concerns. But worrying over them again and again does not help us prepare for the future. Instead, we are pulled into a mental loop over things that have not happened and may never happen.

And when we live like this, the present is neglected. We may think, How can I be happy right now when the things I want to see have not yet happened? Everything in the present gets pushed back or out of focus because of the “not yet.”

So if we are always looking backward with regret or forward with fear or anxiety, we will miss out on the life God has given us today.

Think of a champion playing a tennis match. He does not keep focusing on the point he has just lost. Even if it was the worst point he had ever played, even if it cost him the set, the match is not over. The wisest thing he can do is to let that point go and focus on the next one.

In the same way, we cannot change yesterday by regretting it, and we cannot secure tomorrow by worrying about it. We can only focus on the present and do our best in it.

Live in God’s now

Our heavenly Father does not want us trapped in the “if onlys” of the past or the “what ifs” of the future. He wants us to live in the present.

For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
—2 Corinthians 6:2 NJKV

So He is saying to us: “Now is the accepted time. I have heard you, and I have helped you.”

God’s help in the now is grounded on what Christ has accomplished for us at the cross. Through our Lord’s perfect sacrifice, He has already provided for our restoration, protection, provision, peace, and the well-being of our body, soul, and spirit.

This gives us something solid to come back to when our minds begin to spiral into worry or regret.

Perhaps the situation is still unresolved. Perhaps you are worried about your job, a relationship, or something that has been weighing on you for a long time. The temptation is to keep turning it over in your mind, trying to work out every possible outcome or to figure out a solution yourself.

Instead of staying in that loop, come back to the Father’s assurance to you: He has heard you. He has helped you.

Even if someone else thinks your concern is small, God does not dismiss it. He knows what is troubling you. You can bring every concern to Him and know that you are heard.

This is what determines how we, as believers, are to face the present. And this is also why we can live restful, joyful, and fruitful in the present—not because everything has already been sorted out, but because God is with us and He is our very present help.

What His help looks like for us today

Paul’s words of comfort in 2 Corinthians 6:2 come from a prophecy in Isaiah 49, where Isaiah gives us a fuller picture of what God means when He says, “I have heard you, and I have helped you.”

“In an acceptable time I have heard You, and in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; that You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They shall feed along the ways, and their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.”
—Isaiah 49:8–9 NKJV

This prophecy points to Jesus. He is the new “covenant to the people.” And included in God’s help are restoration and an inheritance.

There may be areas in our lives that have become desolate, for example, brokenness in a family, a calling God has placed on your life that, for one reason or another, seems to have been lost, or an area where you look at what has happened and are at a loss of how to fix it.

Beloved, the Lord says that part of His help is to restore these areas in our lives.

Then, in verse 9, Isaiah spoke of prisoners going free and those in darkness coming out into the light, indicating that God’s help also includes redemption and deliverance. If there is bondage—something we seem unable to break free from—or if our thoughts have become dark and we are spiraling downward into that darkness, the Lord wants us to know that He has provided the way out for us. 

Then Isaiah gives us another beautiful picture: “They shall feed along the roads.”

Sometimes, when we are going through a long challenge, all we want is to skip to the good part, where the breakthrough happens. But God says there is grace for us even while we are still on the journey, and there is provision even before the situation is fully resolved.

This is what living in God’s now looks like. His provision is not only waiting for us at the end of the story. He also provides us with the strength and nourishment we need along the way.

God’s purpose for us in the present 

Our Father wants us to know that He hears us and helps us in the now so that we can live full lives, lives that glorify Him and fulfill the calling He has placed on us.

We all have only one life to live, and that is the life God has given us. We cannot go back and relive yesterday, nor can we live in a future that has not yet come.

He has called each of us to do things that are uniquely ours. There are people we can reach, lives we can touch, and things that He has placed in our hands that may seem small or ordinary, but are all part of His greater purpose.

It may be raising children, caring for a family, going to work, serving in church, encouraging someone, or simply being faithful with whatever God has placed before us.

Jesus said, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13 KJV). To occupy is to busy oneself with the business that has been entrusted to us. It is to live with a sense that what God has placed in our hands matters.

But this does not mean we have to strive anxiously to prove ourselves to our Father. It begins with knowing His heart. In the parable in Luke 19, one servant did nothing with what had been entrusted to him because he had a wrong view of his master. He saw his master as harsh and austere.

So how we see God affects how we live.

If we think badly of Him, it affects the way we work, the way we handle what He has placed in our hands, and even the way we treat people. But when we know our Father’s heart—when we know how much He loves us and how good He is toward us—our approach will be different.

Just like a child who knows how deeply her mother loves her and cannot wait for her to come home so she can show her how well she has cleaned up the house. She did not clean the house because she was afraid of her mother. She did it because she loves her and wants to see the smile on her face.

So when we know our Father’s heart, when we know how much He loves us, we will begin to see what He has placed in our hands as a privilege. We will want to be faithful with it. We will want our lives to count.

And this is how we should live in the present as we look forward to the blessed hope of our Lord Jesus’ return. We are not to be dominated by yesterday’s regrets or tomorrow’s fears, but to live fully in God’s grace today, resting in Christ’s finished work, trusting His help in every step of the journey, and faithfully using the present time for God’s purposes.

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These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.