Erasing the Negative
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. James 3:17 (ESV)
Is anything completely erased? I do not have an answer for that except that Jesus removes our sins and He doesn’t remember them. How about us? We often think those negative things are all gone until months or years later we are reminded of some ugly thought, word, or deed. How did that happen?
We have an enemy that would like us to live in our past world of mistakes. He throws us under the bus every chance he can get. There are times when we don’t even realize what he is doing until we are way into that dark place called depression and anxiety. He loves to hear us say “I am a loser. Look at what I’ve done. I know He has forgiven me, but I can’t forgive myself.”
Maybe we have made a racist comment, had thoughts about how to get even, shunned someone or even started hurtful rumors—knowing full well what we were doing. Did we give back the money at the checkout when she gave us too much change? Could we have been kinder to our siblings or parents? How about the time when we cussed out the kitten for dumping 200 paper napkins around the kitchen floor and playing with them all?
In the computer world, nothing is ever completely gone unless we use a data eraser (which is permanent). Even putting it in the trash and emptying it does not make it totally disappear. Hackers (like Satan) know how to find our stuff, but we think we are safe. We can pound the delete button until our fingers hurt, but that info is not going to go away.
Only Jesus makes our mistakes (sins) invisible. Do we trust Him to do that? In our world today, it is impossible to have 100% trust in anything except Him.
Our best option is to stay close to the One with the heavy-duty eraser. Let Him do His work and all we must do is trust Him to complete the process. He always finishes what He starts.
Forgiving Lord, thank You for removing our sins. You never bring them up again. Teach us to be more like You. Help us delete the negative thoughts, words, and deeds. AMEN.