Your Sins
We’re looking at William Sangster’s sermon, Remember to Forget. His next point is that we need to forget our sins.
Let me read from the sermon. “We all have sins to repent. Have you been forgiven for them? Have you been to God about them in repentance? Lasting and deep repentance? Have you made restitution where you could? Have you forsaken those sins? Are you living in the light of God? Have you learned the lesson that the sin was able to teach?” And he says, if the answer to all those questions is yes, then forget it! Forget those sins. Throw it behind you!
Trusting God’s Promise to Forgive
What does God say to repentant people?” And then he quotes from the Bible, where God says: “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)
Then he says this: “You are facing the future. You need to muster all the courage and hope that you can. Let the forgiveness of God cleanse all the past out of your old wounds and carry you forward with the light step of forgiveness.
Paul had a past. The blood of the martyrs was on his hands. But he went to God for forgiveness, and when he faced the future, he said: ‘Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forward to the things which are before, I press toward the mark.’” (Philippians 3:13–14)"
Put the Sins Behind You
So is this true for you, friends? Have you brought your sins to God? Confess them. Make restitution where you can. If you’ve done that in faith, then put your sins behind you and remember them no more, because God has promised to do the same thing for you.
You can be free from the guilt. You can be free from the shame, if you will confess to God and move forward in faith.
I love how Sangster brings Paul in here, and how Paul, though he was terribly sinful in his early days, received God’s forgiveness, became a man of holiness, and then looked ahead and didn’t let his past bog him down.
May you do the same thing, and remember to forget your sins today.
An extra devotion to thank you for your support! Let me share a story that reminds me of Peter’s staying away from Jesus in fear of condemnation. I hope it will inspire you to go back to Jesus, if you need to, today.