WHEN COMPARING THE ACTS OF forgiving and forgetting, I believe forgetting is the tougher assignment.
Why? Because forgetting is something that is shared with no other person. It’s a solo flight. All the rewards are postponed until eternity . . . but how great they will be on that day!
Forgetting requires us to think correctly, which means our full focus must be on the Lord and not on people. By God’s great grace, that level of freedom can be experienced.
Before we move on, let’s pause long enough to ask ourselves two questions:
First, is there someone or something I have refused to forget, which keeps me from being happy and productive? If your answer is yes, stop right now and declare it openly to your Lord. Ask Him to take away the pain and the bitterness.
Second, am I a victim of self-pity, living out my days emotionally paralyzed by anguish and despair? If your answer is yes, stop and consider the consequences of living the rest of your life excusing your self-pity rather than turning it all over to the only One who can remove it. Read carefully these ancient, but amazingly relevant, words from the pen of David, Israel’s shepherd king:
Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—
my Savior and my God!
It is not “too hard” . . . you are not “too old to change” . . . and your situation is not “too much to overcome.” What you need to do is put your hope in God today. There’s wonderful freedom there. It’s never “too late” to start doing what is right. Invite God to produce this change in you!
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord . . . Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved. The full devotional can be purchased at tyndale.com.
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Listen to today's broadcast of Insight for Living with Chuck Swindoll at OnePlace.com.
Visit the Bible-teaching ministry of Chuck Swindoll at www.insight.org.
