God Never Forgets
Forgetfulness is part of the human plight. It comes at the most inopportune times. We’re face to face with a person, and their name immediately disappears from our memory. We’re late for an appointment, and can’t find our car keys. We’re taking an important exam, and the information we were so sure of the night before suddenly vanishes from our consciousness. It seems the harder we try to recollect the right mental data in these moments, the deeper the information buries itself in our brains.
Then there’s the other side of this coin. It’s the problem of painful memories showing up at all the wrong times. In our most vulnerable moments, we sometimes remember a terrible mistake we made or a failure we experienced, some thoughtless past words we spoke, awkward interactions we had, or embarrassing actions we would prefer to forget. These memories trigger dark, depressive emotions. They paralyze us, distract us, and rob us of effectively handling situations we currently find ourselves in. Just the thoughts of these things send blood rushing to our faces in shame, anxiety, and fear.
Memories are like this—they flee us when we need them and flood us when we don’t! Everybody has “memory issues.”
Sometimes we project our memory issues onto God. Because we forget things we should remember and remember things we actually should forget, we assume God does the same. While God has memory (obviously), we fail to understand His incredible control over His memories.
There are things God chooses to remember. There are also things God chooses to forget. When He chooses to remember something, it’s remembered forever. When He chooses to forget something, it’s forgotten forever.
Let’s start with the forgetfulness of God. When we honestly and humbly come to God in confession and repentance for our sins, accepting by faith the gracious covering of the blood of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, God not only forgives our sins, He chooses to forget them—forever!
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” —Isaiah 43:25 NIV
“For I will demonstrate my mercy to them and will forgive their evil deeds, and never remember again their sins.” — Hebrews 8:12 TPT
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” — 1 John 1:9 NIV
It’s extremely important to believe in God’s forgetfulness of our sins. His forgiveness—and forgetfulness—of our sin means this: there is no record of it, anywhere! Not in some heavenly archive and not in the mind of God. Therefore, we shouldn’t keep a record of it either. When sin is forgiven, it’s forgotten!
While God is good at forgetting, He’s also good at remembering. What God remembers, He never forgets!
What does He remember? He remembers His children! He remembers you! When you placed your faith in Jesus Christ as Messiah, crucified for your sins and risen from the tomb, you were added to His family. And God never ever forgets His kids!
The prophet Isaiah records a time when God’s people were deeply concerned about their relationship with God. They were afraid He had forgotten them. The Spirit of God moved Isaiah to speak the following incredible words of comfort to the Lord’s worried kids:
“Yet Jerusalem says, ‘The LORD has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.’ ‘Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands…’” — Isaiah 49:14-16 NLT
If you’re in Jesus, you’re in the family of God. God never forgets any of His kids! Never! Ever! While He’s willing to forget your sins, He’ll never forget you!
Pastor Dale
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