I am not an elephant. My memory is so bad for some reason! One of my best friends, who I have known since I was about 14 or so, remembers me walking about a mile from my house to his one Saturday. I totally do not remember that.
Sunday, my Pastor taught on the English and Hebrew meanings of "Forget" and "Remember".
In English: to remember means the idea of recalling memories. Forget means to fail to bring a certain memory to mind.
In Hebrew: to remember means to focus on the actions taken because of a memory. Forget means to ignore, and neglect to act.
Isaiah 43:25 says, "I, even I am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sin no more."
Hebrews 8:12 says, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sin no more."
Genesis 8:1 says, "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded."
I think we all know that God did not "forget" Noah. He knew what was going on... but He remembered, meaning He was taking action and sent the wind to blow back the water. There is always an action when God remembers. When He forgets, it's when He chooses not to punish.
In other words, God is not dangling our sin over our heads. He is not waiting for us to mess up so He can strike us down with lightening. That's not how He works.
If you are a Christ follower, He looks at you through the lens of His Son, who is in your heart. You are pure, clean, and righteous because of Jesus.
If God forgives and forgets our sins... we need to do the same for people who hurt us. If you are still "punishing" someone for what they did to you, then you have not really forgiven that person. God doesn't dangle our sin over our heads, therefore, you need to stop dangling someone's sin over their head. EVEN YOUR OWN!
Have you done something that you can't forgive yourself for? You should work on that. God forgives you. Who are you to hold on to unforgiveness for yourself?
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