Where
did I put it?
|
The brain is an amazing organ. We use only a small
part of it. If we were to live 10 million years, and learned one new fact
every second, still the brain would have room for more. So
why then do we forget so much? It is said that the brain is what we use to forget
things with. Some incidents we recall only in later years. People remember
small things from childhood, yet cannot remember what they have just been
speaking about or doing. Someone once said they did not have a memory. They
had a forgettory. There are two things I want you
to think through with me. First,
that there are things in your "forgettory"
that need to be brought back into your memory. Do you remember childhood stories and teaching about
God, the Lord Jesus and how He came to pay for sin on the Cross? As children
we may have seen the simplicity and truth of these things, but then through
teenage years, into married life and work we forgot them. We may have lived most of our lives forgetting God.
One preacher in the Bible warned against this great problem of our sinful
hearts. He said, Remember now your Creator in the
days of your youth, before the difficult days come ... before the silver cord
is loosed." (Ecclesiastes chapter 12) The
second thing is that God both remembers and forgets. He remembers that we are dust. We are weak. We need
Him. He remembers that some of us loved Him when we were younger, but have
forgotten that now. He remembers His promises to save people who turn to Him
and ask His forgiveness. But ... ... He also
remembers each and every one of our sins. That is terrible. It is easy to
forget most of the wrong we have done. But it is impossible to forget other
things. We may remember the way we spoke to one of our loved ones who has
since died. We cannot take back the unkindness. Can these things be forgiven
and forgotten? God remembers our sins, but He has made a way for
them to be completely forgotten forever. Don't
keep on reminding me! Many of us have said this .
We forgot to do something. We made a mistake, and we are not being allowed to
forget it! God has said that there is a way that our sins and
our iniquities may be "remembered no more". Look in your Bible.
Find the book called "The Epistle to the Hebrews" in chapter 8
verse 12 and chapter 10 verse 17 it says that this is possible because God
has found a way to put our sins away from us and from Himself. The Lord Jesus died on the Cross, but not because of
some accident, nor as an example to us. It was other people's sins that were
put on His account, as if He had committed them and had to pay for them. When
God made the darkness come over the land, Jesus was paying that penalty for
our sins. He paid it all. When we remember God and ask Him to save and forgive
us, He remembers what Jesus did on the Cross, and He forgives our sins. Forgiven,
but not forgotten! Sometimes we forgive people, but later we remind
ourselves. We've forgiven without forgetting. That is not forgiveness, is it? God promises to forgive those who call on Him to save
them from their sins. He promises that He will never bring their sins back
into His mind. "Some things I cannot forgive myself for
doing." God can forgive everything because He has provided someone to
take all the punishment for those sins. "Some things I just cannot forget." However bad they were, God tells you to
pray to Him, to ask for His forgiveness. Once that sin is forgiven it is gone
forever. As you remember those things you thought were
forgotten, remember the Lord Jesus. Is
it possible you have been forgetting Him most of your life. But He has never forgotten about you. He
cannot forget your sins, until they are washed away through the precious
death and blood of the Lord Jesus.
Think back over the teaching you received from a good Sunday School
teacher. It is the time to remember the Lord Jesus that you
learned so much about in your earlier life, and to really trust Him as your
Lord and Saviour now. |
Memory or Forgettory?
“Ah! You remembered.” |
