Daily Devotional #1,478

There is a great story about a lady who came to her priest and told him that Jesus had appeared to her and spoken with her. The priest was patient but was obviously skeptical. When the lady was finished, the priest said, “If Jesus ever comes to you again like this…ask him what the sin was that I committed when I was in seminary.” This was a sin that no other human alive would know about and so the priest thought that this would bring an end to her thinking that she was having a face to face conversation with Jesus. Weeks went by and the lady came back and said, “Jesus appeared to me again last night and talked with me.” The priest remembered the test that he had given the lady and asked, “Did you ask him about the sin that I committed in seminary?” The lady simply said “Yes”. The priest leaned forward and said, “When you asked him what the sin was, what did he say?” The lady looked the priest in the eye and replied, “He said he forgot.” I love that tale because it is an important reminder of what our God does when we are forgiven by him. In the book of Hebrews, God is quoted as saying “And I will forgive their wickedness…and I will remember their sins no more.” That is the majesty of this God of creation and redemption. He not only has the power and the right to forgive…when he does, he forgets. You and I cannot do that. We can’t forget our sin, nor can we forget the sin of others. We can forgive, but we cannot erase that from our memories. It is there until we die. And for followers of this Jesus of the Bible, we are told that in heaven there will be no more crying or sadness or pain. And in that place, he will wipe away every tear from our eyes…and we too will finally be able to never again remember their sins.

Here’s our Bible verse for today…

Hebrews 8:12 NLT "And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

Remember I’m praying for you…
Pastor Joe