Do you have regret?
Do you think you will have regret when you die; if so,
what will it be?
I would like to share with you what I truly believe
will be the biggest regret anyone of us will ever face.
Several years ago, a woman I knew lay dying in a
hospital room. Looking back at her life, she had it all: wealth, power,
influence, respect, family, the list goes on. She would, by most people’s
standards, have lived the ideal lifestyle. But as she lay dying in that
hospital bed, all she could think of was her fear of death. There were no
friends crowding the hallway to visit her. Bankers and business associates
weren’t making sure she was comfortable. No family crying and praying over her.
Not even her pastor was there to make sure where her eternal destiny would be.
The one person who visited almost every night was an
unlikely friend, her daughter-in-law. This young woman had suffered for years
at her hands. She had been criticized and a former wife was thrown in her face
constantly. The children from the previous marriage were clearly her favorites.
But in her dying days, this young woman was her only constant companion. She
would sit by her bedside and read from the Psalms. Over and over, the woman
would say, “I’m so afraid of dying, please don’t let me die.”
It has been many years now since she passed. I can’t
help but think she was lost, although I don’t know that for sure and I hope
not. In her last months, none of her riches brought her pleasure. They
certainly do not now. She left behind all the things she thought were precious.
If she is in hell now, I wonder what weighs heaviest
on her mind? There is a passage in the Bible that I think might answer this
question. Luke records a story Jesus told about a rich man and a beggar. The
rich man enjoyed his wealth and power but never considered the beggar who sat
at his gate in misery. Both died, and the rich man asked that Lazarus, the
beggar, might give him drops of water to sooth his pain. Then he asked:
I beg you therefore, father, that you would send
him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to
them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the
prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes
to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead (Luke 16:27-31, NKJV).
Does she, like this rich man, desperately want someone to go back to her family and warn them? Is this her greatest regret?
What if today was your last day on earth. What would
be your biggest regret?
Do you have a spouse, children, grandchildren, anyone
who needs to hear the Gospel? If so, why not cry out to Jesus right now?
If you are truly sincere in your heart, He will hear
you and come to rescue your soul. Then you can join with Him to reach the
hearts and minds of your loved ones. Don’t die like the rich man who will spend
eternity with regret. Make this decision now to follow Jesus.
“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither
shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all;
and no one is able to snatch them out
of My Father’s hand. I and My Father
are one.” (John 10:28-30, NKJV)
