GOD NEVER FORGETS

Time with Jesus - Saturday, 07 January 2012

God never forgets anything. He is perfect in every way. For Him to forget would mean He was not God. In His memory, everything that has happened is known down to the smallest detail. What is even more amazing is that every detail of what is still to take place is known down to the minutia. He has known all this from before the creation of the world. He knows this in a way we cannot even begin to understand. He knows the instant when we will be born and the instant when we will die. He knows it totally and completely. He will never forget anything.

God has another “quality” we need to try and understand. He has absolute and perfect control of His memory. He can choose not to remember something. It’s not a matter of Him forgetting. That’s impossible. But He is able to choose not to remember. Let’s see how it’s put by Jeremiah in his prophetic word concerning the New Covenant. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jer 31:33-34 ESV

“I will remember their sins no more.” Note that He chooses not to remember. He hasn’t forgotten them the way you and I would forget. He transfers these memories to a “place” in Him where He has decided that they will not be remembered. It’s a decision He makes. He chooses not to remember. He is able to do so because He has perfect control of his memory. From our perspective it is the same as forgetting. We are able to totally rely on this. It follows that from our perspective; if He chooses not to remember our sins, it is much the same as forgetting them!

For as long as we are His sons and daughters, He will choose not to remember our sins and iniquity. If, for some reason, we ever ceased to be His sons or daughters, He may choose to remember them again. This means that God has graciously granted His sons and daughters the privilege of influencing His decision to remember our sins no more.

Today’s meditation looks at what has taken place historically; the holocaust and the crucifixion. These historical events have played a major role in the lives of Christians and Jews. God was present during them both. These details He will never forget. He says, “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”. Isaiah 49:16 GW It’s possible that Isaiah was referring to the nail prints in the hands of Jesus. To the best of our knowledge, they are still there.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland.

God never forgets

O Lord, You are so different in everything You do. Forever You are faithful, consistent, sure and true. You don’t forget Your people. They’re never on their own. It surely is unthinkable to say they are all alone. Man persecutes Your people; he makes a holocaust. Yet even in their darkest hour; they never were divorced. You saw the rough brutality; The death camps and the pain. You heard them calling out to you; they thought they cried in vain. But never for an instant were You not present there. And even in the gas chambers, they weren’t beyond your care. They thought they’d been deserted; that You had let them down; Their skin was used for lampshades, their bones were even ground; And auctioned off as fertiliser. All was stripped away; Their clothing and possessions. The theft was just child’s play. The shoes of little children were piled up in a heap And in those dreadful Nazi camps, all Jewish life was cheap. Yet all this is familiar to what occurred that day, When You were taken captive and You were led away. You didn’t try to fight them You let them do their worst. They mocked You and they spat on You. They said that you were cursed. They beat you like an animal; they crowned Your head with thorns. They gambled for your clothing and gazed at You with scorn. They nailed you to a wooden cross and hung You up to die. And all your friends could do for You, was hang their heads and cry. I think the Nazi’s “lessons”, were based upon that day. The murder of Christ Jesus; There was no “better” way; It was the right “solution” to obliterate the Jews. The final way to deal with, the people whom You choose. They made them die of hunger of sickness and disease. The guards had their permission to shoot them as they please. And though six million perished, they just could not achieve, Their ultimate solution. But Lord it made You grieve. O Lord, You won’t forget it. It’s etched into Your hands. There’ll come a day of judgement in each and every land. The Love of God will triumph, when justice is applied. And You will see the perpetrators criminally tried. Lord, thank you for the statement that you will not forget. Your memory is perfect and there is still a debt, To pay for what has happened to Jesus and the Jews. The day will come when all of them by You will be accused. And those, whom You find guilty, will all be led away. And for all their atrocities will find they have to pay. Jim Strickland – Written Saturday 7th January 2012