“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12

We use this verse a lot, rightfully so, to describe how far God removes our transgressions from us. One can never catch the west by going east or vice versa. Once you are going east you will always be going east. God removes and forgets all of those sins that we have truly repented of, but it’s often difficult for us to forget them. Sometimes we can feel like the west is chasing us. We can do all the proper things to be forgiven. We can pray and pray and try our best to move forward, but one glimpse over our shoulder we see the west, we still see what we have left behind and what God cannot see anymore. It feels as if just one tap on the shoulder, one turn of the head, and there we are right back in the middle of the west, right back in the middle of our past sins again.

It seems like the west will always win. It seems like we can never escape our past. Can we find another way to overcome our past?

God always provides another way. Sometimes we just need to do a little digging through His Word. I came across this verse the other day – “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19

How about the thought of casting all of our sins into the depths of the sea? Will this help us to truly grasp the awesomeness of God’s forgiveness?

“The depths of the sea” made me wonder. What sea is the deepest? How deep is the sea? How deep can we deep sea dive?

I’m not an expert on the sea, but a quick google search helps. It’s been documented that one person has dived 702 feet in a single breath and even made it 831 feet without oxygen but sustained brain injury on his way back up. More than 80% of the sea has never been mapped, explored, or even seen by humans. According to oceanservice.noaa.gov –

“The average depth of the ocean is about 3,688 meters (12,100 feet). The deepest part of the ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located beneath the western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the U.S. territorial island of Guam. Challenger Deep is approximately 10,935 meters (35,876 feet) deep.”

It’s deep. Deeper than I can imagine. It’s a place I cannot reach. Only two people have been to the Challenger Deep, but they had special equipment and were only able to stay 20 minutes.

These facts about the sea and it’s deepness makes me love Micah 7:19 even more. There is absolutely no way that I will dive 35,876 feet deep. I don’t even see myself diving 12 feet. And yet, my God is casting my sins into the depths of His sea. The ones I have repented of are gathered up by God and thrown into a deep dark place never to be seen again. Forgiven. Forgotten. Forever.

If you feel like you can never travel far enough east to lose the west, like you are constantly being chased, how about boxing up your forgiven past along with the weight of the forgiven burden you have been carrying for way too long and give it to God so that He can cast it into the depths of the sea to never be seen again.

By: Kristina Odom