Daily Devotional #1,739

I’ve been losing weight. When I was playing football years ago, my weight was around 195. One day I stepped  on the scale, and it showed 212. So, two years ago, I copied what my son was doing and began to lose weight.  One thing that I did was to get a notebook and I wrote down as best I could the calories of each thing that I ate,  right after I ate. I notebooks filled with the record of how much I consumed each day. I look back on that and  can see what I did, day after day. I got to thinking about that. I bet a lot of us think that God has that kind of  book on each one of us. But instead of calories, each sin that we commit is carefully recorded as soon as it  happens. And God has all that stuff stacked up there in heaven, where he can look at it and remind me of how I  have sinned. I don’t know about all that, but I do know what God has said about those who receive this  forgiveness that Jesus bought with his death on the cross. God says that when you accept him and his mercy,  something happens. God says that there is a new deal between you and him. He said that he would change our  hearts and minds. We will never be perfect, but we will be different, and we will be better as we follow him.  But then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” And when sins have been  forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. It is a done deal. So, get that history of mistakes and  missteps and selfishness and even meanness wiped away forever. The folks here may still remember the old  you…but God and heaven will see you and me as just forgiven. And if you are going to heaven, when you get  there, should someone or even you ask about your sin…God will just answer “I forgot.” Forgiveness was so  costly to obtain and is so easy for us to receive. Don’t miss out…ask for that forgiveness that wipes it all away.  I’ve got that…but I’m still going to hold on to those old journals of all those calories and try to hold on to my  new weight of 152 pounds. And maybe someday I’ll just throw those in the trash too! Here’s our Bible verse  for today…
 
Hebrews 10:16-18 NLT “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the LORD: I  will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” (17) Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” (18) And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any  more sacrifices.  
Remember I’m praying for you!  
With love, PJ