Forgiveness and How to Forget – Purity 1763
Purity 1763 09/16/2025 Purity 1763 Audio Podcast
Purity 1763 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a clear blue sky over the silhouettes of leafless trees on the shores of Myosotis Lake comes to us from yours truly as I captured this tranquil scene while working in the Rensselaerville area of upstate NY back on December 4th, 2017. For the life of me, I can’t recall what I was doing on that day, but the photographic evidence suggests that I was appreciating the simple beauty of God’s creation as I do now.
Well, it’s Tuesday and while I have forgotten about much that has happened in my life over the years, because of my relationship with God through my faith in Jesus Christ, I can be fairly certain that I was studying the Bible and praying back in December of 2017 as that has been daily spiritual practice ever since being born again in March of 2010. While I might not be able to remember just exactly how faithful I was to the practice of my spiritual disciplines in the early days of my salvation, I will never forget the abundant joy and great peace that came into my life after I received God’s forgiveness by putting my faith in Jesus.
While there was a lot of work to do in the areas of Christian education, sanctification, and maturity, after being born again, God’s forgiveness through faith alone, in Christ alone, was one thing that I understood very well because I needed it so badly. When you are given the good news that every sinful, selfish, shameful, and evil thing you have every done is forgiven and wont be held against you by God and you feel the weight of those sins lifted off of your soul, you can’t help but to rejoice and want to stay in the joy of God’s loving presence forever. The love of God changes us, or at least it should. The contemplation of what God has done for me has led me to earnestly pursue His will for my life and to continually ask the Lord what I should do next.
After we receive God’s forgiveness, the word and Spirit of God will challenge us to forgive others, as we have been forgiven and to forget other’s sins as God has forgotten ours. Forgiving from heart, renouncing resentment, and not holding the sins of others against them is no small order. Leaning to forgive and forget is impossible in the flesh, but is something we can do in the Spirit.
Speaking of forgetting, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today looks at that topic so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to let go of bitterness by forgetting the offenses done against us. David Jeremiah writes:
“HOW TO FORGET
And Joseph gave [his brothers] carts, according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. – Genesis 45:21
Why haven’t you forgotten your home address? Why haven’t you forgotten your phone number? By contrast, why have you forgotten most of the things that have happened in your life? We remember those things that we think about often and forget those things we ignore.
Joseph could have been a bitter man based on all the things that had been done to him—especially by his brothers. But when he was reunited with them, he not only forgave them, but he also acted as if they had never harmed him in the first place. And that is the evidence for forgiving and forgetting—acting as if the harm had never occurred. When it came time to bring his father’s family from Canaan to Egypt, he did everything possible to meet their needs. He treated his brothers as if they had never done anything ill towards him. We may never literally forget an injury done to us, but if we have truly forgiven, we will act as if it never occurred.
If there is someone you have forgiven but not forgotten, ask God for grace to act as if the injury had never happened.”- David Jeremiah
God does not wish us to remember what He is willing to forget. – George A. Buttrick
Amen. One of the things we can lose a hold of in remembering Joeseph’s story of forgiveness is that it was 13 years from the time Joseph was sold into slavery to the time he was released from prison. 13 years of your life in captivity because someone hated you, even though you had done nothing wrong. This is what Joseph forgave and what he chose to forget.
How can someone do that?
In the flesh we can’t, we only forgive like that when we know the Lord and receive His forgiveness and love. Joseph knew the Lord through prophetic dreams and a day-to-day reliance on His grace to see him through. When challenged with the opportunity to sin, he says no because of His relationship with God. In all the twists and turns in his life, Joseph trusted God and received his favor day by day until the Lord’s purposes called him to be free.
So the 13 years, in slavery or prison, without God would have looked like great suffering and injustice which would ripen one for bitterness.
But 13 years, of a one day at a time conversational relationship with the Lord, where your faithfulness was rewarded in small ways and your faith was sustained until your calling came is 13 years of peace, joy, meaning, and purpose.
It’s a matter of perspective sure, but it’s not just that, it’s a matter of having a close intimate relationship with God and trusting Him and His ways to set you free.
So forgive those who have abused you and don’t let the harm they afflicted make you bitter. Instead remember and continually receive the love and forgiveness of God, so you can let go of the bad things you experience and hold onto the good things that God has done and will do for you.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verses comes from the section on Peacemakers – Peacekeepers.
James 3:17–18 (NLT) But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
.Today’s verses fall under the fourth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Peacemakers – Peacekeepers.
4. Wisdom from God is peace loving.
Today’s Bible verses describes the wisdom that comes from God- a wisdom that values purity, love, gentleness, mercy, good deeds, and of course, peace!
These verses also describe how we can love peace and reap a harvest of righteousness when we plant seeds of peace. How do we do this?
We are to love peace and if we love peace we will do what we can to bring pace and maintain peace. So, we will be gentle in our interactions with others and love our neighbors as ourselves, yielding to their needs over ours. We will show mercy and forgive others. We will participate in good deeds to bless ourselves and others. We will be sincere and show no favoritism and we will seek to make peace where we can with righteous judgement and actions.
Our love of peace requires actions to bring peace. We share and show the love of God by sharing the gospel and living a life that reflects the love and peace that we have received from God.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 262
… repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached … to all nations
Luke 24:47
In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commissioned His apostles to, “Go, therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is here reiterated in shortened form. Did the apostles fulfill their commission? Absolutely. Colossians 1:6 and 23 attest to the fact, as well as Romans 16:26. The “world” in view in Paul’s letter was the Gentile world of the Roman Empire (oikoumene). The apostles achieved this goal in their day. They were to attain this goal before the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:14), and they did. The fact that this is so doesn’t leave us off the hook today; of course we should continue to spread the Good News to everyone in every generation. The missionary call today might be something like this: “If twelve men could spread the Gospel throughout the known world in their day, what should we be able to do in ours?” This fact, rather than curtailing missions, should shame and spur us on to evangelize the world of our day as well.[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 270.
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