Forgiving and Forgetting

Philippians 3:13-14, Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. NKJV

Have you ever gone to a public laundry and used one of the big dryers? Did you ever climb in one and take a spin? I guess you can tell I was definitely a young boy once. If you were to put a bucket of rocks in a dryer and climb in it and close the door guess what would eventually happen? You guessed it; one or more of the rocks would cause severe wounds to occur on your body. People are always asking why bad things happen to good people. Perhaps you've either asked that question or had someone to ask it of you during a time of heartache. Let's face it, we live in a world that is filled with rocks (sin) and eventually we're going to run into a rock (offense) or two. 

When this happens, we must make the decision of how we're going to respond to that bruise and the rock (or person that caused us to be inflicted). We can remember, and we hold that offense against them until we die with the bruise, but a better way to respond to the offense is to give it to the Lord... who, by the way, took our sins upon Him and was bruised for our iniquity. We give Him our hurts, disappointments, failures, and weaknesses through obedient faith. It's not enough to just have faith, but you must change your ways once you believe. After you give Jesus your hurts, you must be willing to obey Him as He begins the restoration process, so that you don't have to live with the poison of the hurt and become defiled by it.

 Jesus responded to our sins by forgiving us, but that isn't where the work of grace stopped; He went on to "forget" our sins. They have been casted into the sea, and He has chosen to remember them no more. Forgiveness is just part of the restoration work of moving forward from a past hurt. Paul tells us in the text today that he came to a place in his walk where he had to be willing to forget the things which were behind him and to move on toward the finish line for the prize.

If we choose to forget the wrongs that others have inflicted in our lives while in the inside of this "dryer"  called the world, then the Lord will wipe it from our hearts, and then our minds will simply forget it. Think of it in these terms; every computer has a monitor and a hard drive. The hard drive represents your heart and the monitor represents your mind. Even though you shut down the monitor, the system will keep the record of the account, because it is still on the hard drive. Choosing to forget allows the Holy Spirit to wipe it permanently off of our hard drive to be remembered no more...in the same way that God chooses to remember our wrongs no more. 

In Genesis 37, you will find the beginning of the story of Joseph. Most of us are familiar with his story...Joseph had many opportunities to be offended, but when God had delivered him from all that was wrongly done against him, Joseph had to come to a place of restoration in his personal life. After Joseph had been used so mightily by the Lord and fulfilled much of what God had foretold him in the early years of his life, he was given two sons by the names of Manasseh and Ephraim. It's Manasseh, the first named, whose name represents the message given for you today. Manasseh means: causing to forget; to remit or remove. Before we can move forward, there are some things that we have to remove. Usually, when taking a trip, most people pack a piece of luggage, but on this trip we must be willing to unpack our suitcases, and then move ahead with God. So ask the Lord what needs to come off of your hard drive or out or your suitcase so that you can move on into what the Lord has for the remainder of your life. He will remove that burden and destroy that yoke with His anointing and lift your head with His grace. Ain't God good?!!

Forgiveness will lead us to forgetfulness. Bitterness prevents the forgiveness process from being complete in restoring our hearts and minds. So if we stop in the middle of the forgiveness process and refuse to forget, then we are allowing bitterness to defile the fruit of the Spirit in our own lives. Fruit that isn't eaten eventually rots. Use the fruit of the Spirit and destroy the decay instead of allowing the decay to destroy your fruit. 

Moving Forward,

Pastor Asa