Several years ago, I was cleaning out my closet and found something I wasn’t expecting.
It was 2020, and we were in the beginning stages of the COVID lockdown. I decided to make use of my time by doing some decluttering, which is something I love to do. I love getting rid of junk. I love getting rid of things our family doesn’t need or want.
As I was cleaning, I found a couple of boxes. Some contained old tax forms that I immediately planned to shred because their usefulness had long since passed. But as I started going through everything, I discovered we had tax records dating all the way back to 2003.
We had been holding on to them for 17 years.
As I looked through those documents and old receipts, I realized something.
We had been carrying those forms 10 years longer than we needed to.
Think about it:
- We had moved those expired records from one side of the country to the other.
- We had taken them through three different houses.
- We had paid movers multiple times to transport boxes we didn’t even need or want.
- We were holding on to records that no longer served any purpose.
As I sat there at the shredder for hours over several days, destroying those old, useless records, I started thinking:
How often do we hold on to a different kind of record?
How often do we keep coming back to old sins, mistakes, failures, and regrets—things we’ve done or things that have been done to us—that God has already dealt with?
As believers, we all know that’s not how we’re supposed to live.
But if you’re anything like me, it’s something that creeps back into your mind from time to time.
One Verse to Remember
The next time the enemy, your own mind, or someone else brings up a sin from your past that Jesus has already paid for, I want you to remember this passage.
“LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.” – Psalm 130:3-4 (NLT)
The phrase “kept a record” comes from a Hebrew word that means to guard or watch carefully.
The psalmist is saying that God is not guarding over a record of our sins. He isn’t carefully maintaining a ledger of every failure and every mistake.
God isn’t keeping meticulous records of your wrongs—or mine.
I don’t know about you, but that’s really good news.
Because I fail…a lot.
A Kind of Forgiveness You Can’t Find Anywhere Else
The psalmist goes on to say: “But you offer forgiveness…”
The Hebrew word used here is unique throughout Scripture because it is only used to describe God forgiving us.
It is never used to describe human forgiveness.
In other words, the psalmist is saying: God not only refuses to keep a running record of our sins, but He offers a kind of forgiveness that can be found nowhere else.
Only God can give that kind of forgiveness.
The Big Idea
God doesn’t want to condemn you. He wants to make you clean.
As a pastor, I often talk with people who ask questions like:
- “Did this bad thing happen because God is punishing me?”
- “Did this situation not work out because of some sin in my life?”
So often we can develop the perception that God is out to get us. But the gospel paints a very different picture. God isn’t looking for opportunities to condemn His children. He’s looking to cleanse them.
Which Record Are You Keeping?
Sometimes we’re keeping better records of our sins than the Creator of the universe is. Think about that.
The God who knows everything has chosen not to hold your forgiven sin against you.
Yet we continue hauling around boxes of guilt, shame, and regret that He has already dealt with.
We keep reopening files that God has already shredded.
A Question to Consider
As we close, ask yourself:
Is there something in your life you need to ask God’s forgiveness for because you’ve been too embarrassed, too busy, or too ashamed to bring it to Him?
If so, bring it to Him today.
But maybe you’re in a different place. Maybe this is something you’ve confessed 100 times already.
If that’s you, perhaps today’s prayer is simply this: “Lord, I know I’m forgiven. Help me live like it today.”
Don’t keep carrying records God has already destroyed.
He doesn’t want to condemn you.
He wants to make you clean.
Jeff McClung 