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.
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