The sin of forgetfulness, the prostration of pride before the love of Jesus

“Forgetfulness is sin. It leads to many blunders and to much disorder and many wrongs. Things that should be done ought not to be forgotten. The mind must be tasked; it must be disciplined until it will remember.” Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 12.

One morning before Sabbath School I was conversing with a woman and mentioned my bad memory. Her answer was, “Forgetfulness is a sin.” Point blank with a wry smile. But, speaking heartlessness truth is a sin, too. Where was the love of Jesus? Where was His truth that should be joined with grace? Where was the “tears in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes”?

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about the loss of memory. She said that her thyroid medication made her feel less depressed and healed, but that she didn’t like the idea of medicating it.

This morning I woke up with something I should have said to her, but I forgot! It’s on this front that our sin of forgetfulness has eternal ramifications. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.” (Rev. 7:15). Will we stand before God’s throne and ever forget something that needs to be said or done? Never. Before Jesus returns to bring us to His Father, we must be sanctified and among other sins, all forgetfulness must be removed. But how? By “the ministration of condemnation” (2Cor. 3:9)? Or “the ministration of the spirit” (2Cor. 3:8)?

“But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” (2Cor. 3:7-9).

So I texted my atheist friend, who works as a school librarian.

“Jesus speaks of losing our first love. The context was losing love in a marriage, but we can just as well lose our child’s love, our love we had as children. You look at little children and they have a lust for life, which makes them wide open to experience everything there is around them and gives them a love to learn. Their love to learn gives them the ability to remember what they focus on, even if they are slow on some things. They become experts in the subject that they love. Real experts. It’s apathy that causes our poor memories, which affects our aptitude.

I believe if you watch the little children that surround you, and you ask Jesus to build a wall of protection around you against the unloving co-workers around you that your memory will begin to strengthen because your subconscience will be opening to love what the Bible calls ‘quickening’, which means bringing to life. Love revives us. Hate, emotional and psychological abuse, belittling others, insulting especially subtle insinuations, etc kill our subconscience and subsequently our memory, and thus the aptitude. If we will take all our abuses to Jesus and ask Him to help, He will. He will give us His love and that will give us the power to deny or reject the hard-heartedness around us and keep us young and alert and lusting to learn.

“We will receive a new meaning for life. We will have a new life. This is the new birth that Jesus talked about. He gives His Spirit which is full of His love like a mother’s kiss. The new birth is the new heart that comes from surrendering to the righteousness and love that His commandments represent. Surrendering to His standard of love and rejecting the world’s gross standard of love opens us to Him and His recreating power. This is the essence of the Bible message from beginning to end. It is the everlasting gospel. He changes us not only spiritually, but also intellectually and physically. We become stronger in every respect from love.

“We don’t have to get old like everyone else. So watch the little ones’ zest for life and ability to learn, knowing that it comes from being loved, and tell Jesus you want that. And He will give His love to you, and much, much more. Love is the most powerful, motivating force in this world. That’s what I’ve experienced. God’s love will make a believer out of the strongest atheist. It will make us jump tall buildings in a single bound.”

That is the ministry of the Spirit. But we need the ministry of condemnation also. Sin will always need to be pointed out.

“Many think it a sufficient excuse for the grossest errors to plead forgetfulness. But do they not, as well as others, possess intellectual faculties? Then they should discipline their minds to be retentive. It is a sin to forget, a sin to be negligent. If you form a habit of negligence, you may neglect your own soul’s salvation and at last find that you are unready for the kingdom of God.” Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 358.

“My husband’s mind should not be crowded and overtaxed. It must have rest, and he must be left free to write and attend to matters which others cannot do. Those engaged in the office could lift from him a great weight of care if they would dedicate themselves to God and feel a deep interest in the work. No selfish feelings should exist among those who labor in the office. It is the work of God in which they are engaged, and they are accountable to Him for their motives and the manner in which this branch of His work is performed. They are required to discipline their minds. Many feel that no blame should be attached to forgetfulness. This is a great mistake. Forgetfulness is sin. It leads to many blunders and to much disorder and many wrongs. Things that should be done ought not to be forgotten. The mind must be tasked; it must be disciplined until it will remember.

My husband has had much care, and has done many things which others ought to have done, but which he feared to have them do, lest, in their heedlessness, they should make mistakes not easily remedied, and thus involve losses. This has been a great perplexity to his mind. Those who labor in the office should learn. They should study, and practice, and exercise their own brains; for they have this branch of business alone, while my husband has the responsibility of many departments of the work. If a workman makes a failure, he should feel that it rests upon him to repair damages from his own purse, and should not allow the office to suffer loss through his carelessness. He should not cease to bear responsibilities, but should try again, avoiding former mistakes. In this way he will learn to take that care which the word of God ever requires, and then he will do no more than his duty.” Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 12.

  

We May Attain Almost the Excellence of Angels.-- The Lord has given man capacity for continual improvement, and has granted him all possible aid in the work. Through the provisions of divine grace we may attain almost to the excellence of the angels.--RH, June 20, 1882. (HC 218.) Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 1, p. 9.