It’s a New Year — the end of one year, and the beginning of the next. Forget, and move on. Let’s talk about forgetting…
Sometimes Satan tries to make us forget what God has given us. He wants us to dwell… and keep dwelling on what we don’t have. His clever attempt to tempt us is first seen in the Garden of Eden. Satan made Eve forget all that God had given her and instead, made her focus on what God had forbidden. He made it seem like God was being cruel, stingy and selfish; Satan made Eve believe that she would be like God if she ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So what happened? She ate the forbidden fruit and the results were disastrous! … This is where you and I fall into trouble. The next time we feel sorry for ourselves because of what we don’t have, we really need to stop and consider all we do have and give thanks to God! Then our covetousness, complaints and doubts about God’s goodness won’t consume us and cause us to sin.
We can’t forget that God is on our side. Like I said before, sometimes when trouble comes we can only see 2 ft in front of us. Pain and confusion is all we feel, and that’s when the “Why’s” begin…”Why me? Why is this happening? Why? Why? Why?” This is a critical time, because when we forget who is on our side or see only our resources, we tend to panic at the face of our opposition. As we face problems or when we get tempted to sin…is when we must focus our attention on God and His resources, trusting that He will help us. This isn’t easy. I’m not telling you to “Do as I say and not Do as I do.” It’s H-A-R-D, but not impossible!
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
God’s forgiveness means He forgets our sins. As believers, we can be confident that the sins we confess and ask God to forgive…they are gone, never to be brought up against us again. Satan loves to challenge that. He loves to throw our sins back at us, telling us that we messed up big time—“God will never forgive a sinner like you. You’re a loser. You may as well give up. There’s no hope for you.”… Lies! Lies! Lies!…Lies from the pit! God tells us,
“If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1: 9
“He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12
We don’t need to keep picking up the sins we repent for over and over. Leave them at the cross. That’s why Jesus suffered, died and rose again! But please know that true confession involves a commitment not to continue in sin. We wouldn’t be genuinely confessing our sins to God if we planned to commit them again and again.