Micah 7:18–19 says, “Who is God like unto You, Who forgives iniquity?” God is a forgiving God. When you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior and asked Him to forgive you of your sins and received Him as your Lord and Saviour, He forgave you and accepted you. The Scripture goes on to say "'He will again have compassion on us; He will subdue and tread underfoot our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." Micah 7:19
I often refer to that as the sea of God’s forgetfulness. He casts that sin into the sea of forgetfulness to remember it no more.
God is not sitting there with a checklist of all the bad things you have ever done in your life, reminding you about how bad you have been. God is not caught by surprise when you and I act like human beings. We are going to make mistakes. We are going to do things that are just plain fleshly. The flesh rears up and does what flesh does best, and that is usually the wrong thing. But God is a forgiving God.
The Scripture tells us that "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12 Think about that for a moment. How far is the east from the west? If you begin traveling east, as long as you continue east, it will never end until you turn around and travel west, there is no end. That is how far God has removed our transgressions from us.
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Isaiah 1:18 The shed blood of Jesus enables us to be washed whiter than snow, so that when God looks upon us, He does not see us as sinful human beings. He sees the redeemed, blood-washed, blood-bought saints whose sins have been forgiven. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Corinthians 5:21
That is the attitude in which we have to walk every day, recognizing the forgiveness God has extended toward us and recognizing His mercy. God is a God of great mercy and great love, and He is more ready to bless us than we are actually ready to receive.
- Likewise, we have to walk in forgiveness.
- Forgive because we have been forgiven, and
- Forget because God remembers our sins no more.
- We forgive those who have done us wrong, and
- We forget it by faith in Jesus.
Now, that is not always easy to do because we have a brain with an incredible ability to remember things. Our memories extend far back into our lives. You can sit and think about when you were a child and remember little things that happened, both good and bad.
I remember when I was about three or four years old, playing outside on the farm, and an aircraft flew very low over us. This was not something I had seen nor heard. This was back around 1953. It was a big old prop plane, and it made an incredible noise flying perhaps one or two thousand feet above me. As a little kid, I heard the rumbling of those engines and ran into the house in terror. My folks had to explain to me that it was an aircraft.
I remember that very distinctly because it had an impact on me as a little child. Your brain stores things like that as memories. You have many good memories, but you can also have many bad memories. Sometimes there can be a series of bad things that happened that stand out in your memory, and those are the things God wants to help us overcome.
Peter had a conversation with Jesus in Matthew 18:21. Peter came to Jesus and said, “Lord, how many times may my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” In other words, how many times can somebody do something wrong to me and I have to forgive him and let it go? Peter suggested maybe seven times.
Jesus answered and said, not seven times, but seventy times seven. That is 490 times. Why that particular figure? I do not know, but that is a lot of forgiving and Jesus wanted Peter to know that as long as he has a memory, he will need to forgive often..
I began to realize how our memories can be triggered throughout our lives. You can hear a sound or hear music played, and suddenly it brings back a memory. Every now and again, we will hear a song that was played around the time of our honeymoon, and we will say, “There’s our honeymoon song.” Thank God that is a good memory!
But sometimes what comes back is not a good memory.
- Maybe somebody did something to you that caused you a lot of grief or anxiety.
- Maybe it became a source of great contention in your life.
- Suddenly that memory crops up, and
- you feel that anger or resentment coming back as
- though the thing happened yesterday.
There are feelings and emotions attached to memories. When you recall certain events, you can suddenly feel the hurt all over again. The event may have happened years ago, but the anger or resentment can rise up as though it had just happened.
That is why these two words, forgive and forget, have to become part of what we do every day. You may have already forgiven somebody, but suddenly the memory comes back and you feel that resentment rising again. Immediately say, “Lord, I don’t want to have this resentment. I thought I was free of it, but evidently the memory is still there. Lord, I thank You in Jesus’ name that You help me overcome this.”
Then forgive that person again.
If you have to do it one hundred times, so be it. If that memory comes back and tries to stir those emotions again, take it immediately to the Lord and forgive again. It will set you free and eventually that memory will not affect you anymore.
The person who hurt you may never even know that they hurt you. A lot of people do things without realizing how deeply their words or actions affected somebody else. They may just carry on with their life as though nothing ever happened.
Your forgiving them is more for you than it is for them.
I want that freedom in Christ. I do not want to be bound by the memories of the past. I do not want to be bound by anxiety, anger, hurt, and resentment over something somebody did to me years ago. I want to be free of that stuff.
So the minute those feelings arise, give them to the Lord. Say,
- Lord, I thank You that You forgave me, and
- I forgive them in the name of Jesus.
- I thank You for the joy of the Lord that is my strength, and
- I thank You for Your peace.
Maybe what happened involved betrayal. Maybe somebody deserted you. Maybe there was trauma or danger. Maybe there are memories that still produce anger, resentment, fear, discouragement, loneliness, or hurt.
Whatever it is, do not allow those memories
to keep you bound to the past.
Jesus has provided freedom for us, and we can learn to walk in that freedom. When those memories rise again, we can bring them immediately to the Lord. We can forgive again. We can release the resentment again. We can thank Him for His joy and His peace.
Forgive because you have been forgiven. Forget because God remembers your sins no more.
Do not allow yesterday’s hurt to control your life today. Give it to the Lord. Forgive. Let it go. And keep walking in the freedom that is yours in Christ.
God bless you richly
Gil Howard-Browne
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