Psalm 81:13-16
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!  I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.  The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured forever.  He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Regret is a powerful emotion.  It often produces such strong feelings when something is done that cannot be undone.  When the die is cast and we’ve made our choice and it turns out to be the wrong one, we are often forced to live with severe consequences.  The nation of Israel must have experienced this so often.  Time and time again they turn aside from God’s ways, missing out on His promised blessings and instead finding themselves facing persecution, war, and misery that they only brought upon themselves.

Let’s not live lives with regret for what could have been.  Let’s not insist on walking in our own ways, but let’s live for God and live for Him wholeheartedly.  Let’s walk in His ways and obey His voice.  Let’s give Him our all and then enjoy the blessings that He will flood our lives with.  Let’s experience the joy of a close and personal relationship with Jehovah God.  Let’s hearken to His voice instead of forging our own path to less than what He had prepared for us.

So often we can fool ourselves into thinking that we can wander a little bit away from God in some area without really suffering for doing so.  And maybe we don’t have to face harsh consequences for every decision we make, but we probably can’t even fathom the blessings that would have been ours had we determined to obey in even that little thing.  God is longing to pour out these abundant blessings into our lives, but so often we hinder Him by our disobedience and unbelief.

God had a good plan for Israel.  They could have been the richest and strongest and most fruitful nation, but they forfeited that to chase after their idols and follow their own ways and ended up in captivity and bondage.  So let us heed this example and choose God’s ways over our own.  Our obedience doesn’t guarantee that trouble will never come our way, but when we are following God, He fights on our behalf and gives us blessing and victory in so many more ways than we could ever imagine.