No Recently Deleted Folder

When you delete a photo from your iPhone, Apple doesn't actually erase it. It moves to a "Recently Deleted" folder where it lingers for thirty days — still viewable, still recoverable, still there. You have to go back and deliberately purge it to make it truly gone.

Most of us forgive the way Apple deletes. We say the words — "I forgive you" — but we move the offense to a holding folder in our hearts. It's still accessible. Still reviewable. And when the next argument erupts, we know exactly where to find it. We open that folder and restore every wound right back to the main album.

But when God forgives, there is no Recently Deleted folder. The prophet Micah says the Lord "will hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). Not into a shallow pond where they can be fished out later. Into the depths. Psalm 103:12 tells us He removes our transgressions "as far as the east is from the west" — a distance that, unlike north and south, never converges.

God's forgiveness is not a thirty-day grace period. It is a permanent, irreversible deletion with no recovery option.

The next time you find yourself reopening that Recently Deleted folder in your heart — rehearsing old wounds, recovering forgiven offenses — remember that the God who forgave you doesn't keep one. And He invites you to delete yours.