Forgiveness

Hebrews 8:12 has some wonderful words as the writer refers to Israel and God's overwhelming mercy to her. It ends with the words: "...And I will remember their sins no more." That's an amazing statement.
The unfortunate thing about forgiveness is that we seldom understand what it means. I've often heard people quote the Scripture that God separates us from our sins as far as the east is from the west. Then the comment is made that God has forgotten our sins. Can God really forget anything? If God knows everything is it possible that He can forget anything?
We humans sometimes remark, "I can forgive them but I cannot forget it." We are saying that we want to forgive someone but what happened just keeps coming to mind over and over and over. Is there something wrong with my faith when I can't forget such slights or injustices?
We do have problems forgetting, don't we? But our problem is that we assume forgiveness is forgetting or erasing an incident from our mind. Perhaps our problem is we do not understand that forgiveness is not erasing an experience or slight from our mind but DECIDING NEVER TO BRING IT UP AGAIN.
Through nearly fifty years of pastoral work I've seen and heard many things about people and have consciously made a decision that there are things I will never bring up. If one sins, repents and asks forgiveness (I John 1:9), I am committed (as is every Christian) never to bring up the past again. It doesn't mean I can erase it from the "cold storage" in my mind, but it means I can choose never to bring it up again.
Believers can do this because God has already done it in our lives. We also have the Holy Spirit to guard our mind in Christ. The wonder of forgiveness is not that God erases things but that He knows it and will NEVER bring it up again. What a WONDER. What an AMAZING act. What LOVE from the One who loves us beyond our understanding. When He tells us He will remember our sins no more, you can count on it. What a Savior!!