Does God forget things? Well not quite, but he doesn’t remember our sins once we repent of them:
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” ~ (Hebrews 8:12).
A slight difference then maybe, but surely it takes even more love and grace to ‘not remember’ something than it does to ‘forget’ it? i.e. making a conscious effort not to recall a person’s wrongdoing against you. Sadly, the world doesn’t always work like this – people hold grudges and their hearts become bitter and hardened, but someone’s sin can not be truly forgiven unless it is remembered no more!
That’s the kind of loving, gracious God we serve. He doesn’t want to examine our past, but looks towards our future instead. When some Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery they wanted to stone her for her sins. However when Jesus spoke to her he wasn’t concerned with condemning her for what she had done. Instead he simply said: “Go now and leave your life of sin”, (John 8:11).
That’s because God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours, (Isaiah 55:9), but wouldn’t the world be a much brighter place if more people chose not to remember sins committed against them? That’s God’s challenge to us, and He’s already set the best possible example – by forgiving and not remembering our sins!