Even though the people of God faced captivity and exile because of their unfaithfulness, they still had a reason to hope. God promised to restore them to their land and forgive them of their sins.
The Lord said to them, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid” (Ezekiel 39:25-26).
Not only would God forgive them, but He said they would “forget their disgrace” and the “treachery…against [the Lord].” They would see their restoration to their homeland as proof that God had forgiven them; therefore, they would put that period of rebellion behind them.
Sometimes, this is difficult to do. We often hold onto the memory of our sins and, in a sense, refuse to forgive ourselves even though God has forgiven us. While we do not want to arrogantly think we could not fall again, we also do not want to hold onto a sense of guilt that hinders us from returning to the Lord and growing in our service to Him.
So we do not need to dwell on sins that God has forgiven. Instead, we must put them behind us and dedicate ourselves to wholeheartedly doing His will. If He is willing to not hold the sins of our past against us, we should not allow the sins of our past to define us moving forward.