The theme for Dr. David Jeremiah daily devotional for today September 20 2023 is ”Keep No Record” and it is a message highly recommended for today’s spiritual growth and upliftment.
SCRIPTURE: [Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.-1 Corinthians 13:7
Is it possible to “forgive and forget”? We can choose to forgive, but can we choose to forget? Every time we tell ourselves to forget about an offense we have suffered, it refreshes the emotion of that painful event.
It is possible to forgive and not forget an offense, though in time the offense can become a distant memory. The danger in not forgiving is that forgetting becomes impossible. If we don’t forgive, we replay the offense over and over, keeping it alive in our mind as if it happens afresh every day. Then resentment sets in—and resentment gradually transitions into bitterness, a source of trouble and defilement (Hebrews 12:15). So what do we do? First, we choose to forgive when we are hurt. Then we love by bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). We bear the offense and believe and hope that it will never happen again. We begin each day with a clean slate, keeping “no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5, NIV).
If you have been hurt, first forgive, then love. Live as if you have no memory of the wrong suffered.
Forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.
Lewis B. Smedes