SEA OF FORGETFULNESS

Micah 7:19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Corrie Ten Boom once said, “God has thrown our sins and guilt into a sea and permits no fishing in those waters!” I think that thought possibly originated from Micah 7:19. Isn’t it an awesome thought that we serve such a loving, gracious, merciful God? A God that truly forgives and forgets? Our God throws our sins into the depths of the sea!

When we have sin in our lives, the sin may seem pleasurable at first, but eventually, especially if you are a child of God, that sin will begin to eat away at us, and it will slowly but surely separate us from our heavenly Father and from others that we love. Last year, a patient that I had been seeing for years said that she needed to talk to me about something. She became very serious and somber, and walked up within a foot of my right ear. We were both masked due to the ongoing pandemic, but she seemed to think she needed to be really close to me to say what was on her mind. She told me that she owed me an apology. I had no idea where this was coming from or where it was going, but it was apparently extremely important to her. She told me that several years ago, she came to the office with her granddaughter, and she was unable to be seen at that time for whatever reason. She said she became very angry, screamed and shouted, and said she wouldn’t be back. Yet, she has continued to see me for years now. She said that she was ashamed of her behavior that day, and that it had been eating away at her for all these years, and she needed to tell me that she was sorry. The truth is, I barely even remember the incident. When you’ve been in health care as long as I have, you learn to forgive and forget and not hold grudges. I assured her that we were okay, and that I was not upset with her at all. All was forgiven.

I really didn’t have any hard feelings towards this lady, but the incident was weighing her down. She said it was bothering her for several years, and she felt a need to make it right. This is how sin affects the life of a Christian. When we are living outside of the will of our Father, that little voice in our head starts telling us that we are doing wrong. That voice is the Holy Spirit, and that feeling is called conviction. The Holy Spirit is within us convicting us, and showing us that we are living outside of the will of God. We may lose sleep at night. We may worry over the issue. But then, a spiritual battle begins to occur. Old Satan is going to tell us that what we are doing is really not so bad. He’ll show you that everyone else is doing the same thing, so it must be okay to continue living in this sin. Is it really a sin if the world says it is acceptable? The battle ensues, and the conviction continues. We can’t rest, and we finally realize that we have to confess this sin to the Lord, and walk away from it. Repent and turn away.

Oh, but glory! When we reach this point of true repentance, we recognize that we are living in a sin, we confess it to the Savior, and we are forgiven. It’s almost magical. We are totally and completely forgiven, and better yet, the sin is forgotten. God throws that sin in a sea of forgetfulness. That sin is now at the bottom of a deep, deep ocean, and we are not to go fishing in that ocean! We are to leave it right there at the bottom of the sea. God has forgotten the sin. We should forget it too, but that’s easier said than done. As children of God, I think we tend to be like that patient I spoke of earlier. When we’ve sinned, the sin bothers us. We dwell on it. We feel bad. We fret. We need not do this though. If we’ve truly repented and turned from that sin, all is truly forgiven and forgotten by our heavenly Father. We are free.

God forgets the sin. He doesn’t throw it back in our face down the road. He forgets it. Yet, we never forget, and I think that is a good thing too. We’ve been forgiven, but we need not forget. If we forget, we may allow the sin to sneak back into our lives. Oh yes, we remember, and we have a faithful, merciful Father who loves us so much that He will help us to stay on the right path. All we have to do is ask Him for help. I know some sins seem much bigger than others. Some battles will be much harder to win than others, but when we equip ourselves daily with the full armor of God, that old devil doesn’t stand a chance. As we learn to lean totally on Christ, we slowly learn that He is stronger than any problem that we have. He’s already defeated the devil. He can help us defeat any sin in our lives. If we truly give it to Christ, the battle has already been won!

We must not forget that Christ has set us free. Our job is to let go of the sins for which we have been forgiven and to move towards the finish line. Let go and let God take over. Do not continue to search the sea for your sins. Do not go fishing in that sea! Stay out of those troubled waters, and look ahead to the promised land. When we are forgiven by our Father, we feel a peace that we can’t even begin to understand, but when we feel that peace…the peace of forgiveness…we will want to learn to live right there and never leave. Thank you God for forgiving me!
KK Hodge
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