Forgive and Forget

Are you struggling to forgive someone who has injured you? Are you having a hard time forgiving yourself? C.S. Lewis had this to say about forgiveness: "I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves; otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than God."

Genuine forgiveness is an inner change of the heart toward the offender. Too often we think we have extended forgiveness, but we continue to harbor ill will or resentment toward others. Matthew 18:21-22 says, “Then came Peter to him (Jesus)...Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.” This is how often you and I should forgive ourselves or those who have harmed us. The number seven was not to set a limit on the number of times to forgive (Psa. 119:164), but it meant the opposite. Jesus was stating that forgiveness should be granted unendingly. The phrase “seventy times seven” speaks of innumerable times. Paul told the Ephesian believers: “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

Do you need forgiveness? Are you having trouble forgiving and forgetting? Here’s how our Heavenly Father forgives:

1. God refuses to remember our sins. Jer. 31:34- “…for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
2. God throws our sins behind His back. Isa. 38:17- “…for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”
3. God casts our sins into the depths of the sea. Mic. 7:19- “…thou wilt cast all their sins in the depths of the sea.”
4. God places our sins under His feet. Mic. 7:19- “…He will subdue our iniquities.”
5. God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west. (Psa. 103:12)
6. God completely cleanses us from the soiled spot of our sins. Is. 1:18- “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Come and join us at New Life Bible Church as we search the Scriptures to study subjects like forgiveness and various others.