Remember No More

I'm struck today with how much my God has forgotten when there is so much to remember.

I am Israel at heart. I have boasted and depended on my own strength. I have neglected orphans, widows, and the oppressed in exchange for my own comfort and self-prosperity. I have bought into deceit and have allowed it to delude my thoughts and actions. I have wandered from the God who brought me up out of the land of slavery and rebelliously declared myself The Queen. I have prostituted myself to shameful idols and worshiped them using my Father's good gifts. I have neglected to tear down the high places with sloppy and apathetic holy living. I have been half-hearted and unfaithful to my God, often sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7)

Oh...you're not that bad, you say? I mean Israel was really wicked.

Ahhh...yes. You're right. I haven't exactly killed anyone. But I have murdered with my thoughts and slain with my tongue. I have donned malice and anger and rage and envy. I've clothed myself with compassion and kindness and at the same time slung the backpack of pride over my shoulder.

So when God says He will remember Israel and Judah's wickedness and punish them for their sins (Hosea 8:13 & 9:9) ... And that destruction and exile is imminent. That "their heart is deceitful and now they must bear their guilt." (10:2)...when I read that...I have no words. Because that should be me...

But it's not. There is no spiritual exile for me around the corner. I have no guilt to bear. And what gets me today the most is that He doesn't even remember. He has chosen to completely forget...like Clorox on a stain. Like an eraser on a whiteboard. Like a legal criminal record pardoned, deleted and shredded as if it never happened.

That is some crazy powerful blood of Jesus Christ to be able to shower that kind of righteousness on me. That when He says "For I am God, and not man - the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath." (Hosea 11;9) That's true for us on this side of the cross because His compassion was aroused (Hosea 11:8) and because what He does remember is how much He has loved us from eternity. And He has remembered that He is a God who is both altogether holy and abounding in lovingkindness and faithfulness forever. And He remembers and we remember Jesus Christ and the cross that both satisfied His justified wrath and showcased His unconditional love and mercy for all the world. And we remember the empty tomb that offers us the real hope of returning to Him and wholeheartedly walking with Him in this life and the next.(Hosea 14:1)

So, Father, thank you. Thank you for putting your Son in the line of fire for me. That He undeservedly received the fullness of your wrath, that was well-deserved by me. There was no sin to "remember" in Him. And now you remember no sin in me. So let me continually call it to mind, Lord. All that you are. All that you have done. All that you promise to do. And let me remember the amazing truth that my sins and lawless deeds you remember no more.

Hebrews 10:14-18

14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”

17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.