Have you ever watched children playing with an Etch A Sketch? If they make a mess of the picture, all they have to do is turn it over to clear it; then they can start all over again. This is how God handles the mistakes you’ve made; He wipes the slate clean. ‘I will…remember their sins no more’ (v. 34 NIV). This has to be one of the most wonderful statements in the Bible – that ‘God forgets’. When we admit our sins and ask God to forgive us, He cancels our past. He chooses to forget our wrongs, errors, and failures. Even if we died tonight, stood before God in heaven, and asked Him about a sin we committed yesterday, He would say, ‘What sin?’ When you deny your sin, you deny God the joy of forgiving you. When you try to excuse your sin, God permits the consequences to have an effect so that you’ll want to turn from it. But when you confess your sin, ‘he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9 NIV). The Prodigal Son broke his father’s heart, wasted his inheritance, and ended in a pigpen. But his story is a comeback story! His turnaround began with these words: ‘When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself…“I will go home to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned’”’ (Luke 15:17-18 NLT). And what his father did for him, God will do for you today.
