Do you remember your first birthday party? Do you remember your first day at school? Do you remember when your first car, job, or prom? You may not remember these events, but here’s one thing I’m sure you can – when someone disrespected, hurt, or upset you. Our memory of other events in life may be vague, but we can recall how and when someone mistreated us with ease.
Aren’t you glad God isn’t like us? Can you imagine how painful prayer would be if He used it as an opportunity to recount the times we hurt Him? We wouldn’t have time to ask Him for anything, for we all have a long list of errors in our file. Instead, God forgives and forgets: “I – yes, I alone – will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again” (Isaiah 43:25, New Living Translation). When God extends forgiveness, He truly forgets what we have done. He gives us a clean slate and doesn’t reserve our mistakes for a more convenient time.
We’re alive today because God forgives and forgets. Every sin we have committed, consciously and unconsciously, qualified us for the death penalty, but He forgave us. Be thankful that He doesn’t remember what we often take a lifetime to forget.