You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19
"Forgive and forget" are nice words and sound advice, though a lot easier said than done. At times we seem to be able to muster enough love to say, "I forgive you." The forgetting, however, may be just about impossible. When a certain word is said, our memory goes into "instant recall." We want to get even by extracting as much pain as the other person has caused us.
Then we look at the other side of the coin. All of us say and do things we later regret. All of us hurt those we love the most, then assume we do not have to seek forgiveness because, after all, they should understand. We say we love the Lord Jesus, but we ignore His teaching. We say we love God, but we do not obey His Word. We pray to Him, but we shudder for fear that He will not approve of what He sees us doing.
Yet God does not give up on us. He reconciles us to Himself by washing us in the blood of His Son. He daily renews His promise to tread our sins underfoot and throw them into the depth of the sea, from where they cannot return to haunt us or accuse us. Perhaps we find it hard to forgive and forget, but God can -- and does -- for Jesus' sake!
PRAYER: Thank You, Lord God, for forgiving and forgetting my sin because of what Jesus has done for me; in His name I pray. Amen.
(Devotions from "The Abundant Life" copyright 1998, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time e-mailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: Job 32-33 Matthew 14:1-21
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