A recent post on Mac Carol Travel brought up the difficulty we have as we aim to “forgive and forget.”
While most of us seek to obey God by making a choice to forgive, we find that the forgetting part is sometimes impossible. But here’s the thing: God didn’t say that! God did not tell us to forgive and forget. As the Lord’s Prayer says in Matthew 6:12, “Forgive us our trespasses (or sins or debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
So I looked up the word “forgive” via an online Bible website and found well over 100 biblical references. I then researched the word “forget” and found over 60 relevant verses, which either encouraged forgetting complaints and little insults or emphasized the negative aspect of forgetting – i.e., do NOT forget. That, of course, led me to find out what the Bible has to say about remembering, which revealed well over 200 verses.
And God started it!
In Genesis 8, God remembered Noah.
In Genesis 9, God remembered His covenant and made a rainbow as a reminder.
In Genesis 19, God remembered Abraham.
In Genesis 30, God remembered Rachel.
In Exodus 20, God reminds us to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
Each of these incidents and others let us know that God is faithful. God can be trusted to keep His promises. And God cares for each of us.
Conversely, people seem more apt to remember things best forgotten – or at least not dwelled on, such as Numbers 11:5 illustrates, when, having been rescued from slavery, the Hebrews remembered “the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.”
Ah, the good ole days! Not really, but memory has a way of making what’s behind look better than what’s ahead. Comfort and familiarity skew such memories. But in the book of Deuteronomy, God clearly wants His people to remember they were slaves, and He rescued them! Establishing the Passover feast provided an annual reminder.
One of the characteristics of King David that made him beloved of God was his ability to remember. Indeed, Psalm 71:11 provides an ongoing theme for his prayers and poetry when he writes, “I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old,” King James Version (KJV.)
For many of us, the older we get, the more we forget! But never fear. God knows that and has already provided the solution. As Jesus reminds us in this paraphrase of John 14:26:
“The Counselor, the Comforter, the Advocate, the Paraclete, the Helper, the Holy Spirit. the Friend, Whom My Father will send in My Name will instruct you. He will teach you and remind you of all I have told you.”
Dear Heavenly Father,
Help us to forget anything petty or just not worth remembering! Help us, Lord, to focus on You and honor You by remembering all You are and all You have done and all You continue to do to forgive us, bless us, and draw us closer to You in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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