I'm so thankful that a very special friend (who sometimes fears she has a rampant ego, so I want to make sure she is properly noted) helped me understand this on an even deeper level this past week. What blessing; what freedom. I picked it as the quote of the week for both of us.
Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.
Oswald Chambers