Thoughts from the son about this letter post.
Does God have a memory problem?
Are you like me? I am notorious for forgetting things. You can see the evidence of that shortcoming of mine by seeing how I decorate the bathroom mirror, kitchen cabinets, back door, my office door and the dash of my car with Post-It-Notes. My family is always ribbing me about this trait of mine. OK, I have a hard time with the details sometimes, what’s the big deal!
Father God is all about the details. As the Master designer He knows the number of strands of hair I have. He knows when every sparrow falls and the number of grains of sand that exist in the world. He knows everything, even my thoughts before they come to be. He knows the exact genetic code that makes my body tick. I don’t think He has a problem with details like I do. I hope His bathroom mirror doesn’t look like mine.
If He is so good at details, why does He have such a poor memory regarding me and much of my life? Why, when at the end of my life, will He not bring up all the crud and junk that I have done in my life? I am very happy and joyful this will be so and I am relieved at the thought of it but it is nonetheless astonishing and amazing to me. He is so unlike me and my natural man’s nature. What a burden He has lifted from me, what freedom He has given to me purely by His grace.
My father and mother both grew up in a very legalistic church environment. The message of freely given grace was not to be found in abundance in their church experience. The truth stated in Isaiah 43:25 was not one they came to know at a deep level. “I, yes, I alone will blot out your sins for my sake and will never think of them again.” I hope the words written in this letter to Pops helped him understand and allowed him to receive the profound impact this truth has for all us who are Father’s children.
I am so thankful Father God has a memory problem by choice.
This letter was written to Pops on January 8, 2019
Does God have a memory problem?
I, yes, I alone will blot out your sins for my sake and will never
think of them again. Isaiah 43:25
Good morning Pops,
In a world where having a poor memory is seen as a flaw and a hindrance to success, we need to celebrate what this verse means to us. Truly, this truth stands, that God’s ways are not our ways. The fact that Father God has chosen to make having a poor memory one of His greatest attributes should make us fall on our knees in thanksgiving. If He had not made this choice, who could kneel before Him and not receive the just punishment for our egregious violations. No, not one.
Now there are some, for whatever reason, just have a poor memory. Most of us do not find ourselves in that situation. We remember quite well, too well, in fact. It might be good that we did have a poor memory when applied to many of the unfortunate events in our lives. If we have been hurt, wronged or violated in some way, the memory of those
events (person, place and time) are usually etched into our memories, seemingly permanently. Untold millions of dollars are spent every year to seek help in how to wash these bad memories from our psyches and the subsequent damaging impact they have made on us. There are some who, even while knowing the hurt such memories cause, will choose to wallow in them, finding a misguided comfort in the pain they cause. We humans, at large, do not want to forget any persons and attached events that have wrongfully hurt us. We have the strong desire to replay these wrongful events over and over, only to increase the harmful impact these memories have on us. Some might say that we are the sum total all of our memories and their subsequent impact on us.
The fact that Father God has chosen to not remember our countless violations should astound us. There is only one reason He can do this. His nature and character calls for every wrong to be made right, every breach of His law has to be met with the appropriate justice. He cannot operate outside these principles. He cannot deny Himself and just “forget” and not have His law fulfilled. Not possible. So how does He do it? How does He choose to not remember? Love provided the way.
"Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits." Hannah More
He took all the vile, putrid and filthy sin of man’s past, my past, present and future and put them into one person, His Son Jesus. Then Jesus met the sentence of the “guilty” verdict. He died. He died for you, he died for me. He suffered the consequence of sin, my sin. He was separated from Father (death). Then Father raised Him from that place of death and provided the way for me, the sinner, to be cleansed from my sin problem through belief in Jesus and His redemptive work.
Because of my belief in Jesus, Father can now say to me “Steve, l will never remember nor think ever again of your sin.” All He has to do is look at His Son Jesus and say “Yes, that sin has already been taken care of, so I do not need to remember it because you are in Christ.” Amazing!! Liberating!!
Thank you Father for removing my sin as far as the east is from the west. Thank you for not remembering who I was before Jesus came into my life. Thank you for letting me be “in Christ.”
"Think what God's forgiveness means, it means that He forgets away every sin." Oswald Chambers
Love you Dad!
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