Psalm 105: 5-9 (NIV)
Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.
He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
He remembers his covenant forever,
the promise he made, for a thousand generations,
the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.
Hebrews Chapter 8: Verse 12
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.
I’m discovering as I get older that I do look back on things that have happened in the past, and mostly happy memories that make me smile or laugh. There’s a time for doing that. But especially for Christians who have been on their faith journey for many years, its also right to look back on how much God has done for our lives, and through our lives. The old hymn with the chorus, “count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done,” is so true. And if we take the time to do so, our heart will indeed be full, and full of praise to God.
The sentence that caught my attention however is that God remembers His promise for 1000 generations. According to the internet, the average length of a generation is 25-30 years. That means God will remember for 25,000 to 35,000 years. In other words, He will NEVER forget His promises.
But that got me thinking of the one thing that God makes an active choice to forget. When we come to Him in repentance and ask for forgiveness, He makes the decision to remember our sins no more. But that means that we must make every effort to do the same, and never hark back to all the things that we have done in the past and regretted, if we have sought God’s forgiveness for them.
It also means that if someone has wronged us in the past, and genuinely sought forgiveness we must never ever cast it up to them again. God is gracious to us and we must learn to be gracious to others as His Ambassadors.
Dear Lord,
When I do remember how much You have done in my life, my heart is full of praise. Help me to make the effort also to forget the things that are now covered by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice. I ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.