If God forgives, why does He not forget?

When people say “forgive and forget” I am not quite sure that they understand what they are saying.  I know that we are called to forgive, but are we called to forget?  Maybe… sometimes.

I need to have usable definitions for things.  I need to have something I can both sink my teeth into and set my hands to doing.  I am ancy (if that is a word).  Maybe it’s the coffee.  Maybe it’s the Spirit.  Either way, I don’t like definitions that either let me sit without doing, or that get me off the hook.

Let’s take a look at what it means to forgive, and what it means to forget…

Forgive: to go back to before

Forget: to separate from the mind or memory of

When we forgive, and when God forgives us… we go back to before it ever happened.  I wrote about this in the post Time Travelers.  So I will focus on the forget part now.

God never separates us from His mind or memory.  All of his thoughts are for us.  When He makes a covenant He never separates it from His mind or memory. 

In Isaiah 49:15 we see a description of the difference between man and God when it comes to forgetting.

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”

Can we imagine a mother separating her child from her mind or memory even while the child is nursing at her breast?  But the Lord knows that in our carnal nature, it can happen. Yet He will not forget us.

He never separates us from His mind or memory. (Can I say that enough?)

“Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” Luke 12:6

Only two times in the New Testament is the word “forget” used:

“For God [is] not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” Hebrews 6:10

“But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Hebrews 13:16

Once it speaks of His justice, the other as a command for us not to forget.

God loves you, He has forgiven you… don’t forget it.

SDG