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By Lt. Colonel Mervyn Morelock –
“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:11)
Like many folks these days, I regularly use a computer. Because my wife and I travel and do not have a secretary, we use a lap top computer with a printer, so that we can do our letters while on the road.
The other day something fell on the keyboard and broke the most important one out of all the 87 keys. I had to get it repaired, because it’s the key I use most. Now, what would you guess is the “most important” key? You might think it’s the key marked “control,” for it has, with other keys, the power to change a lot of information and ways of doing things on the computer.
You may think that it’s the escape key. Who of us, from time to time, wouldn’t like to escape from our problems?
Maybe the backspace, so that you can go back to where you were and start all over again?
On the right upper corner of my keyboard is the most important key of all the others. It is called the “delete” button. When I make a mistake in typing an entry, a touch on the delete button eliminates the error immediately. Any information I have stored which is incorrect or no longer useful can be wiped out forever. It is as if it had never been entered! If you ever saw me type you would see why I call it the most important key. I use it more than most any other key!
Each time I use the computer, I am reminded of how much it’s like the brain. It has the capacity to store good and bad memories. How often I wish I had a delete button to press so that I could correct my mistakes or delete old memories, never to be thought about again!
Over the years I’ve learned to be fairly accurate in my typing, but I always like to keep something around to help correct my mistakes. However, whether it is an eraser, white correction tape, a self-correcting typewriter, or even the ever-handy correction fluid, I’ve noticed that you can nearly always detect where an effort has been made to correct a mistake.
My “delete” key isn’t like that, because when I push it, all the information I’ve highlighted simply disappears! It’s wonderful! No stopping to check to see if all the mistakes have been completely eliminated: no smudges, no covered-up correction that can be detected by holding the paper up to the light! It’s gone, completely gone!
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a button to press that would immediately correct our life mistakes? I am reminded that the Lord has created for us a “delete” button. It’s called forgiveness. It’s a most expensive button, for it took the death of Jesus Christ, God’s only son, to pay for the forgiveness of our sins and disobedience.
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” (Eph 1:7)
Do you still harbor memories of past sins and failures? Does the recall of them make you feel fresh guilt? Do you ever feel that you have no right to give yourself permission to feel freed and released? Is there anything you have done or said that is too big for God to forgive? Are you nursing any feelings of guilt right now for unconfessed or unrelinquished sins?
My delete button could also be called the forgiveness button, or better yet the forget button. In the back of my Bible I have a small concordance. It lists groupings of words, so that I can find a particular verse. Recently, I discovered that forget and forgive are right next to each other!
Hebrews:12 tells us that God has given us a wonderful promise guaranteed by the death of his Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.” My wonderful button is nothing compared to the wonderful grace of God that gives me salvation in Jesus Christ, for my sins are not only forgiven, but they are forgotten, too!