Day: August 5, 2021

WHEN GOD FORGETS, IT DOESN’T MEAN HE CAN’T REMEMBER…

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One of the most beautiful gifts from God is His gift of forgiveness. When we repent and confess our sins to Him, He will forgive of all our sins, even those we call great.

1 John 1:9  (NKJV)

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That’s good news for someone struggling with guilt. But, we must be very careful to not get it twisted. Many people have unintentionally taken Hebrews 8:12 and Micah 7:19 out of context and taught people the wrong thing.

Hebrews 8:12  (NKJV)

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins [a]and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Micah 7:18-19 (NKJV)

19 He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.You will cast all [b]our sins
Into the depths of the sea.

Many people have taught and teach that God FORGETS our sins, and that He can no longer remember what we did wrong.

According to Strong’s Concordance, ‘REMEMBER’ here means: (through the idea of fixture in the mind or of mental grasp); to bear in mind, i.e. recollect; by implication, to reward or punish:–be mindful, remember, come (have) in remembrance.

Notice that part of that definition states, “to reward or punish”.

Bearing that in mind, and also knowing that our all-powerful, all-knowing cannot ‘forget’ anything, we can conclude that when God ‘doesn’t remember’ our sins means that He doesn’t bring them back up against to condemn us or hold against us as long as we have truly repented.

God is too powerful to simply, ‘forget’

Think about how many times in the Old Testament God reminded Israel of sins He had forgiven after they had backslidden. For more on this subject, read…YES, EVEN GOD SOMETIMES BROUGHT UP THE PAST AFTER HE FORGAVE…

He reminded them of what they had done. You can’t remind someone of something that you don’t remember.

Also think about the fact that even when we truly forgive one another it doesn’t mean we don’t remember what they did…we just don’t hold it against them anymore. Now, if we don’t forget, are we more powerful than God?

Yes, God casts our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19), but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t remember where He cast them. The beautiful thing is that if we truly repent, He will NEVER let those particular sins ‘rise’ to hold them against us ever again.

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HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR REGRETS…

wp-1489325386452.jpgWe all have them…regrets.

We regret things we’ve done…

Things we’ve said…

Things we’ve thought.

Even our regrets are an aspect of being created in God’s image.

Genesis 6:6 (NIV)

6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

 The word regret here, according to Strong’s Concordance, means to sigh, groan or ease oneself.

God’s ‘regret’ wasn’t lamenting over a mistake He made, because He makes no mistakes, but rather His comforting Himself as He progressed with His plan that eventually led to man’s salvation.

God gave us every emotion for a reason…even those we consider negative.

He gave us anger to lead to passion in order to make positive change.

He gave us hate to have hatred for evil and sinful behavior…not people.

And, he gave us REGRET to be seeds to repentance rather than depression.

Sometimes when we think of those sinful, shameful, irresponsible or foolish things that we have said, done and thought, we can allow those thoughts to consume us. If we aren’t careful, they can lead to depression or isolation. They can lead to behavior that not only causes harm to ourselves, but also to those we love.

But, God gave us regret to help us avoid making the same mistakes.

USE YOUR REGRETS!

You can use your regrets to PROGRESS you rather than DEPRESS you.

Let your regrets lead to the Godly sorrow that leads to repentance…

2 Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV)

10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Even if you are dealing with the consequences of what you’re regretting, if God has given you breath in your body…that’s grace to make things right and avoid making the same mistakes again.

RECOGNIZE that you can’t go back in time and change what you regret.

REPENT of those thoughts, words, actions, and behaviors and avoid putting yourself in the positions or even frames of mind that would lead to repeating what you regret.

RESOLVE in your mind that you will not allow yourself to ‘go there’ again.

REJOICE in the fact that when you truly repent, that even if others haven’t, God has forgiven you and has given you grace to go on in peace.

Don’t let your regrets overwhelm or cripple you. Let them be brief, temporary moments that you use to make yourself better.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

 

 

 

 

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