"Some Things To Forget"

Larry R. Ping II

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     While it is true there are many things the Bible says to remember, were you aware there are some things it says we need to forget? Think about these three.

 

     1) Forget My Complaint. This was the cry of the oft-persecuted Job (Job 9:27). Not much good comes from complaining and murmuring, hence Paul penned “Do all things without murmurings and disputings” (Php. 2:14). The Lord tired quickly of the murmuring of the wandering Israelites (Num. 14:27), and even made mention of it hundreds of years later in I Cor. 10:10. Complaining existed in the early church (Acts 6:1) just as it does now. What is the best thing we can do with complaints? Forget them!

 

     2) Forget Thy Misery. Job’s friends were of little help, yet they uttered useful things from time to time. Zophar said “Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away” (Job 11:16). In the midst of trial, it is good to remember it will pass, and better days will come. David wrote “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psa. 30:5). In the days of Esther, the Jews were set to be exterminated, but through time, and God’s help, they went from “sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day” (Est. 9:22). This can be our experience too!

 

     3) Forgetting Those Things Which Are Behind. Paul wrote this is the “one thing I do” (Php. 3:13). Consider Paul’s past using his own words. He said he “was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious” (I Tim. 1:13). He iterated “I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women” (Acts 22:4). He articulated “when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him” (Acts 22:20). He also declared “I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (I Cor. 15:9). Of his behavior he said “For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (Gal. 1:13-14). Others asked “Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem” (Acts 9:21)? If anyone would have trouble forgetting their past, it would be Paul. But he sought forgiveness for those things, and did not let them weigh him down. We, too, must be willing to forget the forgiven errors of our past, and move on to do bigger and greater things. Some have little difficulty forgiving others, but great difficulty forgiving self. If God forgives, so can you!