Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 2 June 2024, Sunday Message
TOPIC: God’s Clean Slate
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” – Isaiah 43:25
Every parent knows that sinking feeling when their kid blows it. They do what you told them not to do, they lie to you, or they get in trouble at school. You hope it was all a passing nightmare, but the deed’s been done and it won’t go away.
At least, that’s how it feels at the time. But have you ever noticed what happens when grandparents get together with the family and reminisce about what life was like? An amazing transformation takes place. The children who once were described as little devils are now angels. The brothers and sisters who fought like cats and dogs are remembered as puppies and kittens. They never talked back to Mom and they always obeyed Dad. Such romanticizing by the grandparents elicits from their grown children either guffaws or a silent rolling of the eyes. How could they forget? they wonder about their parents.
Is it senility? Or were the transgressions not worth remembering? Neither. I think parents forget because their love can’t retain those sins for very long. Our love hasn’t enough strength to hold on to that which is grievous.
God’s paternal love has a weak memory as well. He tells us that he blots out our transgressions and forgets them on purpose. Why? “For my own sake,” he says. Rather than our sin being an impersonal infraction of his cosmic order, it is deeply personal. It strikes at the core of his relationship with his creation, his image bearers. It is grievous.
So grievous was our sin that God sought an effective and eternal eradication. No sentimental, romantic senility would do. No divine dementia. Only his Son could blot out the trespass forever. Only Jesus could serve as the “forsaken one” so we might be embraced as the “sins-forgotten ones.” For God’s sake.
Lord, grant me as bad a memory about my sin as you have. Cleanse me today of the sins I confess, and then help me to reminisce with your same joy.
Joni Eareckson Tada is an American evangelical Christian author, radio host, artist, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization “accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community”.