A Consciously Forgetful God

I spent the New Year with one of my coursemates from Greece and stumbled back at 4 in the morning. It had been a wonderful night of conversation and games. I was so tired when I got into bed that I didn't set my alarm, planning to go to the evening service instead of the morning one. I asked the Lord to wake me up if He wanted me to go to the morning service.

And I opened my eyes in surprise at 8:30 in the morning, so I went to the morning service.

Because of a phone call from my dad I was rather late in leaving. So hurrying to church I prayed, disbelieving myself: "God, please send someone along in a car to give me a lift to church." Less than 5 minutes later I heard a honk behind me and it was a couple from church who said, "Hop in!" No one had ever before overtaken me and given me a lift to church in all my four months here. So I went to church amazed at all the lengths He had taken to get me there for it on time. And I found out that there had been no evening service planned for that night!

What I had been brought to church especially to hear was this: that He makes all things new. That God's compassions are new every morning, that God is giving us a new heart and a new spirit, and God has made us new creations. We are to forget what's behind and not dwell on the past. In God's mercy, we can leave our mistakes in the past.

I made a big mistake in my second year. All through my third year and even into this year I have been trying to let go of this mistake and to live with its consequences. I was living under the shadow of this mistake I had made and this message touched my heart then. A new year, a new start, a new outlook, a clean slate.

Things started to overwhelm me again yesterday and I cried out to Him: "I wish You could blot out every memory of that sin so many years again and the downward spiral I took then."

But I can.

Where is the proof that You can?

"It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.They are new every morning: great is His faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23) "'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the Lord, 'I will not be angry forever.'" (Jeremiah 3:12) "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." (Isaiah 1:18)

And the key: "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Isaiah 43:25)

Do You really not remember it? Can you really not remember the past? Can an all-powerful God, who knows everything, who is capable of doing anything, consciously forget something? He would have to purposely block it out of His memory. How could that be?

I am a perfectionist. But God is not a perfectionist. He is perfectly just, yet also perfectly merciful. How does it make sense? You took the burden of my sin. You took the shame of my guilt so that I would not have to live in shame. Can I really believe that the past is truly past with You? That Your mercies are truly new every morning?

That was why I woke you up early in the morning on New Year's Day.

God does not remember the past! As far as the East is from the West, He has removed my sin from me.

Do I really not have to bear the consequences of my sin, Lord? I find that so hard to believe.

"He was wounded for your transgressions. He was bruised for your iniquities. The chastisement of your peace was upon Him - and by His stripes you are healed."

He bore the consequences of my sin. So I am free. By His stripes I am healed. So something that happened in the past becomes now gloriously present.

So I am really a new creation. And you - you are a new creation too. No matter what has happened in the past, no matter what mistakes you've made - He has blotted them out from His memory. He came on purpose to do that - He lived to die, so that you would not die, but live. Thank God : ) I do believe that He has made all things new. So I will forget the former things and I will not dwell on the past. From this day forth, I believe things are going to be extraordinary.