I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins (Isaiah 43:25).
Psychologists tell us that one of the main de-motivators of human personality is guilt and condemnation. Many people carry the weight of failure due to past deeds. Guilt will keep a person in the downward spiral of hopeless addictions as they seek the numb the pain of past failures. Addictions of all sorts: alcoholism, drugs, sex, food, and even in work may find their origin in the covering of and hiding from the emotional pain of failure. God’s remedy for guilt is the forgiveness and cleansing found in the blood of Jesus! As Isaiah says: Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).
I was freed from my chains of personal failure when I learned that God does not even remember confessed sin. He has no record of it!
Years ago I was reading a book by Dr. Roy Hick entitles He Who Laughs Lasts and Lasts…In the book, Dr. Hicks mentions Einstein’s theory of relativity. Part of that theory is the belief that if a person could travel at the speed of light, time would cease. He would enter into the eternal.
The Bible says that God is light (1 John 1:5). God lives in the realm of the eternal. Past, present, and future are all “now” to God. It’s a hard concept for our finite minds to grasp, but it is true. God lives in the eternal “now.” The panorama of history is constantly before Him. He sees everything that was, is, and will be as “now.” Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world (before it was created). The Apostle John was shown The Revelation which shows the future. How? All this is or will be exits in the eternal where God dwells. And God showed John what will be because it already exists in the realm of the eternal.
So when God says that He will not remember our sins, it a big deal! That means that confessed sin is not even history, because history can be remembered! Confessed sin is not found in the mind of God. It is blotted out as if it had never been committed. And that is a miracle! God can do what we can’t. Our past deeds live in our memory, but He has the ability to completely remove confessed sins from His mind, and from recorded history! So when you sin as a believer, don’t brood and whine over it, repent and confess it! Then it will be completely removed from the history of your life and you can walk free from guilt!
This is all by faith. We are usually the last one to forgive ourselves when we sin. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God (1 John 3:20-21). We often feel the pain of self-inflicted guilt long after God forgives us. The key to being released from this inner condemnation is walking by faith in what God says about you, and choosing to believe what God says and refuse to be affected by the feelings of failure. If God says He forgives and forgets, then you choose to forgive yourself and forget it too!
Regardless of how many times you fail, get up! Confess the sin in repentance, and walk on. Remember, For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again… (Proverbs 24:16). Forget what God has forgotten and be released from the chains of the past!
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