“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” – Psalm 103:10-12 (NKJV)
I was reading something recently about removing all things that had leaven in it during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Not that I celebrate this, as it happens after Passover, but what this person did with all the cookies, crackers, donuts, yeast, and bread in their house was a little weird. During the feast, this person locked it all up in a separate container, and for the duration of the feast, that’s where it all stayed. When the feast was over, they unlocked the container and put all those things back where they belonged. He was ashamed to admit this to folks until one day he came clean with what he was doing. In essence, he was taking his sin back.
Now if you just went “huh?” allow me to explain. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a time where everything with leaven in it has to be removed from the home and nothing is consumed that has leaven in it. That’s a really bad description of the feast but, it’s about as much as I know. However, leaven is something the apostle Paul spoke out about so there is a bigger thing attached to this. And it’s this…when the person unlocked the container and put those things which had leaven in it, they said it was as if they were taking the sin they were forgiven for back and put it where it was in their life.
“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” — Galatians 5:7-9
Whenever we go back into that leavened container full of forgiven sins, we are essentially committing something called spiritual grave robbing and it comes in different forms. Sometimes it’s us that is doing the digging up. Life gets rough and there was something we use to practice “back in the day” that would solve the problem before us. It’s probably unbiblical in its nature, but it packed a punch and left a trial of destruction behind it. Problem-solved, BUT it wasn’t of Christ and we suddenly feel convicted after we’ve done it. So, since 70 x7= unlimited forgiveness, we think it’s cool to ask for God to look over this…again.
Maybe it isn’t that, maybe it’s that we pull that sin outta the container and all we do is dwell over them. Especially since we know that God Almighty desires to forget transgressions as though they had not happened in the first place. When we sincerely repent of our sins, our heavenly Father not only forgives them, but also totally forgets them. This is where we see the passage, I chose for today comes into play. When it comes to El Elyon, the memory of those sins drops cpmpletely out of sight and out of mind, unless we keep bringing them up or continue committing them, which just might be the God of the Universe doing an eye roll saying, “REALLY?”.
Perhaps it isn’t that you’re the grave digger-upper, but that it’s someone else who does it for you. “Remember when you did this to this person and remember when you did that to me?” These folks have no problem raking the leaves in your own backyard up and then just piling the whole mess on top of you (like brown gravy and cheese curds over French fries—mmm Poutine). These people are corpse shakers and are great examples of what it looks like when there’s a lack of forgiveness.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” — Matthew 6:14-15
Spiritual grave robbing ain’t nothing more than an action that portrays the lack of being, accepting, or giving forgiveness. Perhaps your of the mindset that says, “I’ll forgive but I ain’t forgetting.” Well guess what? That’ll make you one of the most deplorable grave robbers ever, ‘cos that ain’t forgiveness. That’s let the person know that you believe you ways are higher than El Elyon’s ways and you’re just gonna hold a grunge.
Unforgiveness can spoil the entire lump of your daily dose of His encouragement so much that you’ll miss out on the day’s blessing and no one deserves that. So do yourself a favor, fill in hole, close the lid, leave your sin where God left it and for your own good put away your shovel. Lift your hands to the sky and say, “Thank you My God for pouring out Your forgiveness on me, a Sinner!!” See? That wasn’t so bad… Amen?
Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a child of El Elyon, a son, a husband, a father, has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of The Colony of Mercy. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can email him at cphughes515@verizon.net.
