Choose Not to Remember

Last time I posted about how the Lord will remember our sins no more. The Scripture doesn't say He forgets our sins, but rather that He doesn't remember them. At first glance that may seem to be one and the same, but it isn't. He chooses not to remember.

I was pondering this thought and I remembered how the Lord gave Moses the pattern for the tabernacle in the Mountain.

". . .as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for see, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." Hebrews 8:5

The tabernacle has always been a special type and picture of the Lord Jesus to me because when I was a senior in high school, we were divided into teams of two and each team had to present a scale model of the tabernacle for a grade. We had to follow the "pattern" to get a good grade.

Having sewn quite a few things in my years, I am practically acquainted with the concept of patterns. I learned to sew by watching my Aunt Flossie. She had a little room in her house where she would make clothes for her family and she was patient and kind to let me stand and watch what she did. It laid a foundation of knowledge for when I decided to put my hand to the sewing machine at our house. I did what I saw her doing.

This is what the Lord Jesus told His disciples. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19).

Perhaps, the Lord inspired the prophet Jeremiah to tell us about the Lord not remembering our sins for that to be a pattern for us. An example of something we should follow. Something we could "see" our Father doing and we could do it likewise.

We hear a lot in our day and time about "forgive and forget". While some people don't seem to have difficulty with the "forgive" part, many people have a great deal of trouble with the "forget" part. Perhaps that's because we aren't meant to forget. Instead, perhaps instead we are meant to choose not to remember. Maybe that is the pattern to follow.

Lest this just becomes a debate of semantics, let's put it into a practical situation.

Imagine I have been wounded by someone, perhaps even a friend. At some point, the remembrance of the offending occurrence is sure to come to my mind. Even if I am determined to keep it from my thoughts, as a Christian, I have enemies -- the world, my flesh and the devil -- who will constantly want to put those very thoughts before me. In fact they will entice me to dwell upon every minutia of how I have been wounded, abused and mistreated. It pains me how often I have followed this enticement when there were such better thoughts to be had.

When those temptations come, instead of setting my anchor in that unsafe harbor of remembrance, I can choose to think of what the Lord has said about that situation and about me and the person who offended me in that situation.

So what do we think about? What do we know to be true?

We know to be true that our sins and the sins of the one who wounded us, were paid for on the cross by the blood of the Lord Jesus.

If our friend is a Christian, even if they have walked after the flesh in this matter, their names and our names are written in the Book of life and we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life by the promise of His dear Son.

We know, too, that we are in Christ and He is in us. We are seated in the heavenlies, hid with Christ in God. Nothing can harm us or touch us except the Lord chooses to work it in our lives for our very good.

We know the Lord has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and as already given to us all things which pertain to life and godliness. We know because He has made Christ to be for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, through Him we can do all things, including forgiving the one who has wounded us.

We know too, that Christ is our peace and joy and that the love wherewith He loves us passes knowledge. This love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We know we can rejoice in the comfort of love to be ours in the Son of love, and that the Lord has given to us the Spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.

As we begin to confess these things to be true, we will find our hearts more at peace and our minds focused not on our wounded self that is hurting and reeling but on His wounded self which is healing and redeeming.

This posting adapted from "These Things Are True", Orange Moon Cafe