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Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 3:13-14
As you saw from yesterday’s reading, we must show the same level of forgiveness to ourselves as we show to others. It is extremely important for us to forgive ourselves from our past sins. But it is equally important for us to forget the burdens of those past sins by letting go of the memories of those burdens.
Our memory is like a two-sided coin: a side of blessings and a side of burden. My older brother was killed in 1996, but I will never forget his genuine smile and his love for life, family, and God. At the same time, I used to be tormented by the memory of his death. I wanted his killer’s family to feel the same pain that I was experiencing.
I thank God every day for teaching me how to forgive!
If you are anything like me, there are times when you are plagued by hurtful memories and the hardest part of forgiving is forgetting.
Forgetting is a solo fight. Forgetting requires you to reflect properly, which means your complete focus must be on Jesus and not on memories of yesterday’s problems and misery. I am not saying you should reject the hurts you have had. That is psychologically unhealthy. I am implying that forgetting is being intentional about growth, which means evaluating things that have happened in the past, both good and bad, as a means of self-development and growth.
Let’s dig a little deeper!
We are told by the world that to experience healing from past difficulties we must explore hurtful things that happened. Similarly, the Word of God teaches us that it can be helpful to reflect on what happened to us in the past in order to understand where we are in the present and how we need to grow and develop for the future.
For example, we should not drive a vehicle by looking in the rearview mirror. The proper way to drive is looking ahead, out of the windshield, and occasionally glancing in the rearview mirror. The goal is to use the information in the mirror to make a good decision on how to continue to drive forward safely. Once we have made a decision on how we are moving forward, we slowly start to forget the memory in the rearview mirror.
In the same way, we need to take periodic glances at yesterday’s memories in order to make godly decisions to move forward with our lives. And once we begin to move forward we need to slowly forget the memories of yesterday.
Did you know that intentionally recalling certain memories can lead to forgetting other experiences?
People can conquer certain memories by focusing on more desirable ones. Simply recalling a particular memory repeatedly, like a memory of God’s faithfulness, can drive other memories to the back of your mind, resulting in a form of adaptive forgetting.
This is important because God wants you to stop watching reruns of your wrongs and replay His awesome acts. God wants you to forget so you can be alert to what He is about to do in your life today. God wants you to:
Forget the worries and the drama of yesterday’s stories and replace them with stories of His mercy and grace.
God is about to provide a river in your wilderness season. God is about to carve out a path through the pounding waves of despair. It is time for you to laugh insanely, live truly, and create beautiful stories for today.
You have one life. One legacy. Make the most of it. When you learn the art of forgetting, God’s grace is going to take you from glory to glory, all for His glory.
Cream and Sugar...
Say This Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
Today please give me the grace to forget the injustices and mistakes of my past. I choose today to totally focus on You and move into a place of healing. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen.
Day 11
