“I realized that my debilitating regret was characteristic of worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow…’worldly grief’ [is] defined as ‘hopeless sorrow.’  I grieved and regretted my past with feelings of hopelessness.  My deep failures felt like hopeless blights on my track record.  My past was behind me and nothing could fix it.  At times I felt such despair about my past that I secretly wished I were dead.  Not only can worldly sorrow lead to death in spiritual terms, its hopelessness can cause someone to wish death on himself. 

Beloved, my ‘hopeless sorrow’ totally missed the meaning of the biblical word redemption.  God redeems something by buying it back through the payment of ransom.  He gave the life of His Son as the ransom to buy us back from the clutches of sin.  He has also bought back the rights to our past and all its failures.  If we cooperate, He’ll turn every single one of those failures into something useful for His kingdom.  To me, that’s the meaning of ‘full redemption’ in Psalm 130:

‘If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness;

therefore you are feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,

and in His Word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord

more than watchmen wait for the morning,

more than watchmen wait for the morning.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,

for with the LORD is unfailing love

and with him is full redemption.’

-Psalm 130:3-7

Put your name in the blank in verse 7 where the word ‘Israel’ was.

O ________________________, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love

and with him is full redemption.

If you’ve nursed hopeless grief over your past, put your hope in the Lord!  He loves you unfailingly!  He wants to fully redeem every part of your life until even your failures bring Him glory. 

Will you let Him?”

Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy by Beth Moore

pages 101-102