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Today we pray once again for the Constituency Response team: Shannon Runnels, Jeffrey Spang, Jared Valencia, and Anthony Weatherly. Ask for God’s encouragement through the gifts and prayers of the donors that they have the opportunity to interact with.
TODAY IN THE WORDWhen God forgives our sins, how far away are they? At the equator, the Earth’s circumference is nearly 25,000 miles. Is that far enough? No! Our Milky Way galaxy is about 30,000 light years across at the center, with an overall diameter of 100,000 light years. Is that far enough? No! At present, scientists estimate the size of the entire universe at about 10 billion light years in diameter. Is that far enough? No!
When God forgives our sins, they’re gone, utterly gone. “As far as the east is from the west” is not a measure of distance but a hyperbolic, dramatic picture of how thoroughly and completely He forgives (v. 12). God also said, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist” (Isa. 44:22).
As we’ve seen, God’s forgiving love is central to His nature (v. 8; cf. Ex. 34:6–7). His love is as boundless as the earth and the heavens; similarly, His forgiveness is as wide as the east and the west (v. 11; cf. Ps. 57:10–11). That is to say, the height, depth, and breadth of God’s mercy cannot be measured (cf. Eph. 3:18–19). It’s infinite.
In His mercy, God “does not treat us as our sins deserve” (v. 10). He has compassion on those who fear Him and understands our weaknesses. In His love, He removes our sins far away, blots them out, hurls them into the sea, and treads them underfoot. Forgiven sins are gone from memory and gone from experience. No divine grudge list is kept in a secret drawer somewhere. Instead, the guilty are made innocent, and sins as red as scarlet are transformed to be as white as snow (Isa. 1:18).
TODAY ALONG THE WAYSometime in the near future, give yourself an object lesson in the perfection or completeness of God’s forgiveness. Go stargazing. Find a good place, removed from city lights or human noises, and look far out into the night sky. Consider the huge distance between you and the nearest star, or try to imagine the vast reaches between galaxies. In all the universe, your sin is nowhere to be found (cf. Jer. 50:20). God has removed it. It’s been forgiven, literally “lost” within His love.
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