12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:12 KJV

Recently I came across a few notes in an old journal of mine about this verse.  It did me good to hear it again and I want to share it with you!

Now think of this verse practically.  It says “as far as the east is from the west”. Well how do you measure that?  

The earth is a globe.  Which means when you travel around it eventually if you continue going west you’ll end up right back where you started. 

Kind of like what happens when you continue in your sin right?

Have you ever felt like you aren’t going anywhere?

If you’ve lived any amount of time in life not in the perfect will of God, you have found yourself feeling as I have – working for no reason at all. 

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Psalms 127:1 KJV

Psalms 127:1 tells us that “unless the Lord builds the house the people labor in vain.” 

Doing your own thing is to labor in vain.

Speaking from personal experience – when you do this consistently you end up get discouraged to the point you don’t believe you can win.

I spent a few years consistently doing things I knew I wasn’t supposed to just because everyone told me it was the “smart” thing to do.

See I thought I was going places.  I had my face set forward, but I didn’t realize that I was stuck in a death loop.  

I traveled in a straight line on a circular path and end up in the same spot.

Nathan Zimmer

I would walk straight, straight, straight and eventually end up back in the same place I left from. 

Remember the children of Israel?  They did the same thing!  

They set out after escaping Egypt and pretty soon found themselves wandering in the desert going no where but continuously moving forward. Many of them never did make it to the promised land.  

Have you ever felt like you’ve gone too far?

Sometimes we can feel like after we’ve walked in the desert a few years like there’s no way back.  

It can get frustrating walking and working so very very hard just to find out that we are no better off than before. 

I’m reminded of a song that says, 

“Life was so empty so hopeless and vain.  Until I heard a story of how a Savior came.”

No one has gone too far from God.

Remember the prodigal son or the man Jonah. The Bible is full of people who run to their own way only to turn back to God and watch Him accept them just as they are in that moment. 

I wrote a song out of Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray.  Another voice we’ve listened and obeyed…”

⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:6 KJV

But the story doesn’t stop there. 

The east meets the west when you turn around.

This is what baffled me when I decided to turn back around God was immediately there to forgive and start moving forward.  

God tells us in our verse for today exactly what happens in that moment.

12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:12 KJV

See the east meets the west when we quit going our own way and turn back around.  

It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve circled the earth.  It doesn’t matter how many laps we’ve taken. The only thing that matters is that we turn around.  

In that moment our transgressions are forgiven from us.  

We are restored to God and able to truly start living. 

God is waiting on you: turn from the East to the West

Because of the sin we allow in our lives, we sometimes can feel guilty or condemned and blame that on God.  

In truth deep down inside ourselves we have a knowing that what we are doing is either right or wrong. 

When we violate that knowing, we lose confidence in what we are doing. 

Proverbs 19:3 tells us that when we act foolishly and sin it causes our heart to fret against the Lord. 

³ The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.

Proverbs 19:3 KJV

But that is us. We are the ones who are anxious and concerned about getting caught. The problem is we blame that feeling on God.

God isn’t the one making us feel that way.

God is merciful and ready to forgive our transgressions and welcome us home. It’s us stopping ourselves from receiving. 

God is ready to forgive and really just wants to move on so that you (and Him) can start living a good life together. 

I invite you today to make any adjustments in your life that you need to make.  God isn’t looking for penance or suffering to prove you’re sorry – that’s you thinking that way.  He is just looking for you to turn around and start moving forward with Him.