Remember…When All You Want to Do is Forget

There are certain things I would rather forget.

Things I want others to forget.

I want to pretend it never happened and move on…

Isn’t that what forgiveness is?

Shouldn’t everyone just forgive and forget? Move past my mistakes…and just go on?

“Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.” Deuteronomy 9:7 (ESV)

But wait a minute…doesn’t Romans 8:1 (ESV) say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”?

So how do I stand guiltless and not condemned while I remember my past?

Maybe it is in remembering my greatest acts of rebellion that I realize how serious God is about sin. Perhaps when I am face-to-face with the worst of myself, I can see the greatness of what God did for me.

So I need to remember and not forget what I did and the consequences of my sin.

I must remember and not forget that I have always been rebellious from day one.

You see God did not give the Israelites the promised land because they were righteous or good.

And God doesn’t give salvation to me or anyone because we are good or righteous. No, it is a gift.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)

“…and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…” Philippians 3:9 (ESV)

God loves me even though I royally mess up over and over again.

He does not require me to clean up my act to come to Him, to get it right and then He will consider saving me.

He says, “Angela I know you are rebellious and have always been. Take my gift of faith and let me be your Lord (or boss) forever.”

A perfect God who loves me, a mess who all too often chooses rebellion over obedience. Oh that I will never cease to be amazed at His love for me.

Oh that I would be a woman so humbled by God’s grace that I live my life in grateful obedience remembering my rebellion and standing amazed God’s forgiveness.