When my grandson, Zac, was about three, I put safety child locks on my kitchen cabinets. It was hard to get used to the ‘undo it’ deal before opening the cabinets. Again and again, I would grab the handle to open and the door would catch, throwing me off balance.
One day, Zac was in the kitchen with me as I was struggling with the new child locks–. In his toddler concern, he informed me that “I will fix dat for you, mamawl.” Laughing, I told him, “never mind, mamaw will get used to it”.
Later that night, I went to open a cabinet door. I found that the knob had been removed from the door. In fact, the knobs had been carefully removed from ALL the cabinet doors!
The safety locks still held tight, but no knobs. I’m thinking, “what????” Remembering Zac’s earlier conversation, I called his mom and asked her to ask my little helper where he had removed them to.
Zac came to the phone and said, “I trying to fix them doors for you, mamawl, but it didn’t work, they still stuck shut.” I told him how I appreciated his care and effort, but, I really needed the knobs, where had he stashed them? He said, “I tooked them away.”
For about a week, we searched for the knobs but never did find them; we ended up replacing every one of them! To this day, we do not know where Zack stashed the knobs. It remains one of those “unsolved toddler mysteries.”
When we confess our sins to the Lord, He takes them and puts them so far away it is impossible to find them; Psalms 103:12 says “—as far as the east is from the west”. No matter how horrible the sin, when we repent, God removes them from His memory totally, never to bring them up to us again!
When those things that cause us to sin come before us, through our relationship with God, we CAN turn aside and walk as Jesus walked. (I John 2:4-6) We can’t continue in sin and serve God!
Sometimes, the sins we have committed leave deep scars and unfortunate consequences in our lives and the lives of those we love. These scars and consequences will be worked out through God’s love when we continue to serve Him. Sometimes, the healing and restoration takes years, decades, even lifetimes, but through God’s faithfulness, we can move on.
God is faithful to give us grace, mercy and healing through prayer and study of the Word. God never brings up our past sins and He doesn’t want us to keep going back to them!
Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?