2Sam 12:13-Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die."
Forgiven doesn't mean forgotten.
My dad loves the game of golf, and has played for as long as I can remember. He had some old, worn out clubs that he let us kids use, "as long as we hit the balls WAY out in the back yard, away from the house and car". Well of course, I preferred to use the whole yard and not just the back part, so I would hit the ball around the house at targets. As you might guess, eventually I hit a shot bad enough that it shanked and crashed into the back side window of our new Ford Country Squire station wagon. Angry doesn't describe well enough the feelings my parents had about that disobedience. They forgave me, (I didn't die like I thought I would), but there was a price to pay. And after that mistake, I started hitting the golf balls away from the house!
Forty years later, I still remember that incident, and still get nervous about balls around cars. It was forgiven but no haven't forgotten. And although the consequences were small, there are other sins in my life where the consequences last much longer.
Jesus paid the price for our sin and gave us forgiveness from death (eternal separation from God), but the consequences in this life still continue. And although he forgets the sin, we remember with regret so we don't do it again.
Praise God for His forgiveness today. But also thank Him for using consequences to detour our lives away from repeat offenses and toward a better direction. Use your memories of the past as a positive lesson of where to drive your life in the future. Forgive, but don't try so hard to forget.
What failures in the past have you learned from? Have you sought the forgiveness of God by accepting Jesus as your Lord & Savior? Can you use those lessons to direct your life and instruct others?
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