Notes on Hope Devotional

Fully Forgiven

Micah 7:19 (NIV)
“You will again have compassion on us;
    you will tread our sins underfoot
    and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

Hidden in the back of the book of Micah is this gem of a verse talking about our sins: “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

When I first read that verse, I didn’t fully grasp the entire concept of having all my sins thrown into the depths of the sea. I knew I was forgiven, but only in my mind and cognitive brain, not in my soul and spirit, where my emotions needed to sense and savor it. I wanted to “get it” in the place where I needed to know it the most: the broken and battered places where I felt shame and regret. Those words “hurled into the depths of the sea” create a picture to help me “get it.”

When my husband was in college, he went to work on a tuna boat with his dad for a short time. Upon pulling the nets into the boat and hauling in the catch, they sorted the tuna from the trash fish. When they finished, they threw back the trash fish, the stuff that was no good, had no value, and belonged back in the water. It was hurled into the depths of the sea — not to be looked at, not to be worn as a souvenir or label, nor carried in a backpack. It was to be dropped back into the ocean to be left there for good. Final and complete.

What if we make a mental picture of our forgiveness and make a “sticky note” of the process of “hurling all our iniquities into the depths of the sea”? It would be a way to remember we are forgiven from the past, the present, and our future as well. It’s easy to forget our forgiveness when we mess up and listen to the voices in our heads reminding us of our failures. Forgetting our forgiveness requires resetting our thoughts to rewire our brains to remember and do what Paul says in Philippians 4:8; “whatever is true — think about such things.”

Just like I need a written note to remember what to get at the store so I don’t forget, I need a daily reminder of being forgiven. Reading this verse, meditating on it, and memorizing it will help us stand in the reality of who we are and living out our identity of God’s grace and forgiveness.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for your grace and taking my sins so that I am fully forgiven. Help me live it out, without shame, walking in the identity of being Your beloved child.
In Jesus Name, Amen.