Let's Take A Trip...And Leave The Baggage Behind

“as far as the east is from the west,

    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

                                                                                                   -Psalm 103:12

Do you recall what the globe in your grade school classroom looked like? Imagine if you begin at the North Pole and begin traveling south. Eventually, you pass the South Pole and you are no longer traveling south, you are now heading north. North and south have finite points. 

East and west do not. Begin on the West Coast of the US and start traveling east. You continue to go east no matter how far you travel. East and west do not have finite points…he has removed your sins as far as the east is from the west. They never meet!

Wow! Once I’m forgiven, God never remembers that sin again. 

So why does it keep haunting me?

If you have asked for forgiveness and it keeps haunting you, I would suggest that is the work of the father of doubt and deception. Satan’s goal is to get you and me to doubt the Good News that Jesus died to bring us. “Did God really say…?” “Is that what he really meant?” “He can forgive a lot, but I don’t know about that one…”

Rest assured, if you have asked for forgiveness, that sin is gone. There may be lingering consequences from our choices, but the condemnation is gone. Jesus no longer remembers it. Jesus lives in your heart, your trust in him can help you drown out the lies of the accuser. 

So the next time you are feeling guilt about something in your past that God has already forgiven, take flight in His Word, trust in his promise, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Leave the guilt behind.  Jesus carried that baggage far, far away; there is no need for you to pick it up again.