What God Remembers


Prayer: Dear Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To You belongs all praise, glory, and honor. You are sovereign God over my entire life. Thank You for allowing me to come to You in prayer and with all of my questions and requests. Please help me to learn more of You during this study time and may my love for You increase with each moment. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Read: Psalm 25
http://www.esvbible.org/search/Psalm+25/

Thoughts: Some days it’s difficult to remember what you had for breakfast that morning. And at other times, you wish the past would just go away so that you don’t ever have to remember it again. Our memories are tricky because we don’t always remember everything exactly the way it happened. We can be fooled and our     memories can become jumbled. Of course, it isn’t quite that way with God. He     remembers everything, right? Well, not quite; He chooses to forget our sins. But that’s for another devotion. In our Psalm for this week, David (as he did in 2 Samuel 7 from our Day One reading) takes a moment to remind God that He has made some promises, and he wants God to remember the fact that He is merciful and loving. Interestingly, David also asks God not to remember the sins of his past. (While it might be comforting for us to be able to forget them too, that would not be helpful, as we would do the same sinful things over and over and never learn. Again, something for another devotion.)
     Why does David feel the need to ask God to remember mercy? Does he really think that God is going to forget to be merciful all of a sudden? No, David is fully aware of God’s ability to remember that He is a merciful Being. But David is also aware of himself as a sinner and the one thing he can’t afford is to have God forget to be forgiving. David is counting on the forgiveness that he is so very aware that he needs. What God doesn’t do is forget about our sins like the never happened.      Instead, He punished Jesus for those sins so that it is as if they do not exist. It is important for us to realize that God doesn’t sweep our sins under the rug. If that were the case, the dirt would still exist; it would just be hidden. But instead, God eliminates our sin through Jesus death on the cross. It used to exist. Now it has been taken care of appropriately by a just and holy God. It is so important for us to see our sin the way that God sees it, lest we become immune to the deep tragedy that surrounds our lives because of sin. If we think that God just looks the other way or hides our sin, then we begin to take it too lightly and we cheapen what has been done for us by Christ. No, we need to be realistic. Our sin is real and it is worthy of death. So God sent Christ, born to live and die for us and be resurrected in victory over all of our sin. Our sin isn’t hidden, it is obliterated!
     So with David we ask God to remember His mercy and forgive the sins of the past (and the present and the future, until we die). We ask that in full understanding that our sin has power to condemn us. But Jesus has more power and we are saved!

Prayer: “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. . . . Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day long.” (Psalm 25: 1, 2, 4,5) In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

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