LEARNING DAILY

 

Micah 7:18-19, Where is another God like You, who pardons the sins of the survivors among His people? You cannot stay angry with your people forever, because You delight in showing mercy. Once again You will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under Your feet and throw them into the ocean! (The New Living Translation)

 

Forgiveness! It is such a major teaching in the Bible. In the Old Testament God provided forgiveness through the sacrifice of innocent, perfect animals. Jesus Christ took our place, as the perfect sacrifice, on a cross that we might be forgiven of our sins when we repent and give our lives to Him.

 

Jesus and teachings in the New Testament tell us we must forgive others. Forgiving another is not the difficult part, at least for me. I was up the other night letting the cat outside; sleep was not going to happen so I decided to do research about the questions of forgiveness, forgetting, and trust. In the verse from Micah above, the ocean is often referred to as the “sea of forgetfulness”.  One of my questions was about God forgetting our sins. I asked a brother’s opinion as well as did some research. The answer I got was God is omniscient and cannot forget; that means God knows all things. Further research agreed with this and added that God cannot forget in the way humans do. The research stated that “our sins do not slip God’s mind somehow. Rather, He chooses not to remember our sins. He does not hold our sins against us or treat us the way we deserve”. That seems to say He does not rub our noses in the sinfulness of our lives.

 

I found something else while researching this topic. Have you ever heard the term “transactional forgiveness”? Me neither. Looking it up I found references to “forgiveness leading to full reconciliation can only take place when the guilty party seeks forgiveness”. It states I forgive you but you have to grovel and be in the doghouse for a long time. I sort of like that but it does not seem to fit into God’s idea of forgiveness; Godly forgiveness just says, “I forgive you”.

 

I have come to the conclusion that forgiving does not mean forgetting. Some wrong committed against you or said about you may creep into your memory from time to time but forgiving is a choice to be made; forgive and move on. Forgiveness is a mental choice each of us has; each of us has control of that choice. At the same time forgiveness is to never be used as a weapon; if you truly forgive a person, you won’t use their past behavior as a tool to harm them whenever you feel the urge to get some sort of revenge.

 

There is another thought I needed to examine. When someone does or says or writes something really offensive toward you, what is the relationship between forgiveness and trust? I remember a pastor said, in so many words, that forgiveness is a must but trust often takes time. I believe he was correct. I do not want to become vindictive or bitter so I choose to forgive because God, through Jesus Christ, has forgiven me of so much. Bitterness will result when no forgiveness occurs. However, trust may take time to be rebuilt when it has been broken. The real question that I must answer is whether I want to take the time and energy to rebuild that relationship. I have found that restoration of relationships is worth that time and effort! You might be facing that question right now in your life. My prayer is that you find that to be your answer as well.