Daily Devotional

I love how clearly the Bible states things. Let’s be honest, we all sin and fall short. We often try to hide our shortcomings from each other and might want to pretend we have it all figured out, but we can’t hide anything from God. He knows every single sin we’ve ever done, and yet chooses to love us anyways.

Without realizing, many of us can believe the spiritual myth that God forgets all our sins. I remember learning this when I was a kid; God is the only one who truly forgives and forgets. I always had a sense of relief knowing that even when I sinned, once I asked for forgiveness God would completely forgive and forget that I ever did anything wrong.As I grew up, I started growing increasingly confused by this idea. One time I was reading through Exodus, and I read the part about Moses killing the Egyptian. I pictured God in heaven being surprised by that because He had forgiven and forgotten. If God forgets our sins, then anytime we speak of a past sin He must be really confused? If I remember my past sin but God doesn’t, does that mean I know something God doesn’t know? You can see how problematic this can quickly become.

When the Bible speaks of God “remembering” something or not “remembering” it’s not quite the way we think of the word. A great example is Genesis 8:1 where after the flood it says, “But God remembered Noah…” Does that mean He forgot about Noah? Did God only mean to keep the water on for a little bit and then 40 days later remember His mistake? Of course not. In the Hebrew sense “remember” means to turn your attention to. Once the flood was over God now turned His attention to Noah and his family.

Here's why this all matters and why it’s actually BETTER that God doesn’t forget our sins. God doesn’t forget our sins, but He chooses to turn His attention to our future not our past. What an amazing thing! God looked at us in our worst sin and still loved us enough to send His Son Jesus Christ. A forgiving God is much better news than a forgetful God.With God there is not forget-ness of sin but forgiveness. Yes, He could make a list of all the sins we’ve ever done, but He chooses not to. Love keeps no record of wrong and God is the ultimate example of that. We have been forgiven, so now we are free from sin and free to serve our gracious God.

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