Forget About It

 “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.” Genesis 41:51

Does God have a great big pink eraser that He uses to erase our memories?

Genesis 41:51, above, refers to Joseph’s great joy at the birth of his first son, Manasseh, whose name means, “making forgetful.” Joseph had experienced tremendous rejection by his siblings, even being sold by them as a slave to some travelers, who then sold him again, landing him in the home of the mighty ruler of a foreign country. Who wouldn’t want to forget the pain of abandonment and rejection, misunderstanding and cruelty, fear and uncertainty?

Joseph “forgot” his past when God gave him a gift over which he rejoiced. Today, psychologists might say that Joseph “buried his memories.” But for Joseph, the gift of God triumphed over the evil that had been done to him. The old life was not worthy to be remembered, in light of the new life.

We see this forgetfulness again in the New Testament. In Philippians 3:12-13, Paul has been “laid hold of” by Christ, and thus he now wants to “lay hold of” his future; he does this by “forgetting those things which are behind” so that he can “reach forward to those things which are ahead”.

Let’s face it: some things only serve to drag us down, to hold us in place like a trap does to a wild animal. Our past can do this to us. Jesus has a dire warning about looking back: “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). The bottom line: Don’t let your remembrance of your past dictate your response to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

If you look in a Bible concordance for the word “forget,” you will see far more Scriptures exhorting us “not to forget” than to “forget.” We can conclude, after looking at these exhortations, that we are to FORGET what we have done and what has happened to us, and REMEMBER what our Lord has done for us and in us. For instance, in James 1:24, we are specifically told NOT to forget what God has shown us about ourselves.

I know that it is hard to forget the wrongs done to us. But God, by His mercy, can CAUSE forgetfulness, as with Joseph; and He can, by His grace, ENABLE US TO CHOOSE forgetfulness, as with Paul.

Father, help us forget any evil that has been done to us, and give us the ability to choose not to be influenced by it, but to press on to what You have laid out ahead of us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.