He Forgot

Today's reading comes from "God Came Near" by Max Lucado.

"I was thanking the Father today for His mercy. I began listing the sins He'd forgiven. One by one I thanked God for forgiving my stumbles and tumbles. My motives were pure and my heart was thankful, but my understanding of God was wrong. It was when I used the word 'remember' that it hit me.

"'Remember the time I...' I was about to thank God for another act of mercy. But I stopped. Something was wrong. The word 'remember' seemed displaced. It was an off-key note in a sonata, a misspelled word in a poem. It was a baseball game in December. It didn't fit. 'Does He remember?'

"Then I remembered. I remembered His words. 'And I will remember their sins no more.'

"Wow! Now, that is a promise.

"God doesn't just forgive, He forgets. He erases the board. He destroys the evidence. He burns the microfilm. He clears the computer.

"He doesn't remember my mistakes. For all the things He does do, this is one thing He refuses to do. He refuses to keep a list of my wrongs. When I ask for forgiveness He doesn't pull out the clipboard and say, 'But I have already forgiven him for that five hundred and sixteen times.'

"He doesn't remember.

"'As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.'

"'I will be merciful toward their iniquities.'

"'Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool.'

"No, he doesn't remember. But I do, you do. You still remember. You're like me. You still remember what you did before you changed. In the cellar of your heart lurk the ghosts of yesterday's sins. Sins you've confessed; errors of which you've repented; damage you've done your best to repair...

"...Do yourself a favor. Purge your cellar. Exorcise your basement. Take the Roman nails of Calvary and board up the door.

"And remember...He forgot."

pp. 101-105 (Scripture References: Heb. 8:12, Psalm 103:12, Isaiah 1:18)