Forgiving Means Forgetting
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The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
For I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins.
Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.
Remember, Lord, your compassion and your faithful love, for they have existed from antiquity.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my acts of rebellion; in keeping with your faithful love, remember me because of your goodness, Lord.
The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to worship before the Lord. Afterward, they returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.
Remembering means to choose to actively recall, so not remembering does not mean that you do not know an event happened, but rather that you choose not to actively recall it.
A misunderstanding of what forgiveness is can keep us from forgiving.
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
Forgiveness is clearing a debt.
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?”
“I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.
“For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began to settle accounts, one who owed ten thousand talents was brought before him.
Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.
“At this, the servant fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.’
Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.
“That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’
“At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he wasn’t willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed.
When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened.
Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed.
So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”
We don’t track forgiveness.
So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him: There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.
The rich man had very large flocks and herds,
but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him.
Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.
David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”
Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul.
I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.
Why then have you despised the Lord’s command by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hethite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.
Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hethite to be your own wife.’
“This is what the Lord says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them in broad daylight.
You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’ ”
David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Then Nathan replied to David, “And the Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.
However, because you treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.”
Then Nathan went home. The Lord struck the baby that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became deathly ill.
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground.
The elders of his house stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.
On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”
When David saw that his servants were whispering to each other, he guessed that the baby was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the baby dead?” “He is dead,” they replied.
Then David got up from the ground. He washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes, went to the Lord’s house, and worshiped. Then he went home and requested something to eat. So they served him food, and he ate.
Forgiveness does not erase all consequences.
Lord, if you kept an account of iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you may be revered.