Forgotten Is Forgiven

Forgiving is not reliving—its forgetting.

February’s Awakening, Day 27

Forgiveness is not an occasional act: it is an attitude.

 —Martin Luther King, Jr

Forgotten is forgiven.

 —F. Scott Fitzgerald

The sinner of today is the saint of tomorrow. Wherefore, unmindful of the sins and shortcomings of our neighbors, let us look to our own imperfections, surely forgetting what God has forgotten: sins truly repented, which God has forgotten, we have no business to remember.

 —Meister Eckhart 

Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.

 —Marlene Dietrich  

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1–2 NIV

            When God forgives our sins, He keeps no record of them nor holds them against us, but has removed them from us as far as the east is from the west and has cast them into the depths of the sea, never to be retrieved. Most assuredly, God expects the same from us, concerning both the sins that we have committed and those sins others have committed against us. In both circumstances, we are not to live continually in them, but we are to forget what is behind and move ever forward. We cannot continually punish and condemn ourselves or others for that which God does not condemn and has freely and completely forgiven.

            To say in your heart, “I forgive, but I’ll never forget,” simply means you have done neither. Forgetting does not mean that the event has been wiped clean from your memory, but that the event no longer has any control over you and no longer initiates any negative physiological, emotional, or mental response within you. It becomes as any other event in your life—it just happened—an unfortunate event, but now neutralized such that it causes no continual ill will or negative response within you. You have released it and as such have neutralized all its negative effects in your life forevermore. Yes, at times exceedingly difficult, but wasn’t it enough to live through it once—do you really want to relive it continually?  Truly forgiving and forgetting is the first step to healing and wholeness, and yes, it will oftentimes take the power of God to free you and release you.