"Fuggeddaboudit" - 4Giveness Part 2

I don't know about you but I grew up hearing this most ridiculous phrase...

"Forgive and Forget..."

I understand the intention... let bygones be bygones.
Just forgive the person and then forget all about it.

Is that really how forgiveness works?

Is it just as easy as Al Pacino said in the  movie "Donnie Brasco" with his thick New York accent, "Fuggeddaboudit"?

My iWitness...

I am one of those people that has a very strong memory.
There are good things and bad things about having a great memory.
The good seems obvious...
The bad part is that I remember things I really don't want to remember.
I remember these things with great clarity along with all the deep emotions that accompany the event or the person.

I remember someone once telling me that because I could remember being hurt by someone that meant that I had not forgiven that person.

I am calling "BS" on that one.

I am much more in favor of remembering how hurt I was and then remembering the person asking for forgiveness and then remembering the work of reconciliation that went into the "forgiving" and then remembering how the friendship was restored to a much stronger position.

Why would I want to forget that?
I love remembering how God helped me work through a difficult situation.

Here comes the tricky part...

Somehow, some way God remembers our sins no more.
Does this mean that God suffers from short term memory loss?
Is God absent minded?
In a word... "No."

My take is that by forgiving us God no longer allows the sin, the mistake, the misstep to continue to be a barrier between me and Him in our ongoing relationship.
We ask for forgiveness and God says every time, "You are forgiven."
This great act of forgiving allows us to move forward in a way so that the previous sin no longer keeps the two of us from interacting in a dysfunctional way.

The slate is wiped clean!
The Etch-A-Sketch has been turned upside down, shaken with love and we start with a clean slate!

In our finite world this is mind boggling. Consequently we find ourselves begging God
time and again after we have been forgiven saying to Him, "O please Lord forgive me again for that sin that you already forgave me for yesterday and the day before and the day before that.."

And God in His infinite wisdom says....

"Fuggeddaboudit!"

And that's my iWitness...
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!

"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31. 34)