Delete, delete

Yesterday in Bible class the teacher gave an illustration that I won't soon forget. He was speaking my language and it brought the point home to me in a way that meant something tangible in my life. We have been studying covenant and what it means in relationship. Yesterday the text was Hebrews 7, 8 & 9.

I live and die by email. I have got folders and subfolders and sub-sub folders. Whenever I get my inbox down to under a 100 messages I feel like things are under control. I file things in separate folders or I decide that I don't need that anymore so I delete it. I do not have Outlook set up to where my sent box and my deleted folder automatically deletes when I log out. Oh no. That would be tragic. Any numbers of times I've found myself going through the sent folder and then the delete folder trying to find something I sent or that was sent me. So, although I have deleted something, I haven't really deleted it.

There comes a time however that I have to go through the sent file and the delete file and really delete things. My inbox is reaching the maximum size and I can't send any more emails until I dump something. So I go into my delete folder and look at the messages...mmmmm...I might still need this info and so I pass over it. I come to something that I don't need anymore, I don't want and know I am never going to be required to have that data again. So then I delete delete it. It is gone.

That's what God says He does with my sins. In Hebrews 8:12 we can read:

"For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

God delete-deletes my sins. They are gone. Not even the FBI can find them on the hard drive of my life. I love it when an illustration hits me right where I live. Everytime I hit delete now I'm going to remember that God has a big delete key that He built in and chooses to use it for me.