Forgetting the Past

-By Carlin Armstead

Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. consider the things"- Isaiah 43:18-19 (Amplified Bible)

We have all experienced events in life that we would like to forget about. Isaiah 43:18 tells us “Do not remember the former things; neither consider that things of old.” The Amplified Bible version of this verse inserts the word “earnestly.” So, should we forget the past or could we agree we shouldn’t dwell on it consistently?

One of the definitions for the word “forget” is “to cease remembering or noticing.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) Does that mean we choose whether we remember things or not? Sometimes, in the natural state we live in, remembering the past is beneficial for history’s sake. We learn from the past, which helps us make decisions in the present and future.

There is a saying that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man). The statement was updated, by Winston Churchill, in a 1948 speech to the British House of Commons: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Forgiving and forgetting are two different things. There are stories in the Bible that show forgiveness of others from Jesus' sacrificial death to the story of the prodigal son, where a father welcomes his son home unconditionally after the son left and lived riotously.

Spiritually, when we give or surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, we are redeemed, and our spiritual slate of sin is wiped clean by God because of the blood sacrifice of our Savior. When God looks at us, He only sees the blood of His Son covering us and our sins. The Bible says in Psalm 103: 11-12: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

So, does God forget? Micah 7:18-19 (Amplified Bible) states, “Who is a God like You, who forgives wickedness and passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He [constantly] delights in mercy and lovingkindness. He shall again have compassion on us; He will subdue and tread underfoot our wickedness [destroying sin’s power]. Yes, You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”

When something is thrown into the “depths of the sea,” it’s generally lost or can’t be found. In a spiritual sense, this may be God’s version of forgetting following forgiveness. In essence, forgetting as human beings may be a choice because we tend to forget the things we want to forget about. Forgetting can also become a state of mind or mindset to forget and put behind past situations that are not beneficial to our lives.