Giving Thanks For Sins Thrown To An Unreachable Place

How far is the east from the west?  It is a distance we can never travel and a destination we can never reach.  Based on our acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has removed our sins from us and sent them to that place we can never reach. We can leave the disgrace and damage of our destructive lives at the cross of Jesus and receive a completely new life from Him in exchange.  

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:8-12

Now isn’t that great news?

Thank You God that when You separate us from our sins, we are washed clean from them, and they are removed to a place that is as far as the east is from the west.  You don’t stay angry with us and go on accusing us.  You don’t treat us as our sins deserve but You forgive us and wipe the slate clean.  What an amazing gift You offer to us.  Help us to quickly come to repentance when we fall down and to trust Your great love for us as we come to You, confessing our sins and asking for this great gift. Amen

So if God does this amazing work in us when we ask for it, what then is going on within us when we continue to remember the guilt and shame, pain and condemnation?  The simple answer is, the enemy of our soul is sitting on our shoulder telling us lies.  The one who seeks to destroy us is deceiving us into thinking those dark things are still sitting some place in our soul.  He's lying because the sins are gone.  God says He remembers them no more so why should we?

Lord help us today to remember that we are to remember that, Jesus paid our sin debt on the cross and because of that, You have forgiven us.  Help us to reject all shame and condemnation and live in the joy and freedom of that forgiveness.  Help us to confront our own thoughts and emotions and tell them  that our debt for sin has been “paid in full” by Jesus. Give us grace to receive Your healing and comfort as we let go of the past. 

Give us strength also to  tell the enemy to take his lies and take off because You, God, have set us free.  We want to experience the satisfaction of Your freeing work in us today and every day and so we simply stand in this powerful truth. Amen