11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11-12 ESV)
God does not expect us to be sinless. He knows that we are broken creatures living in a broken world.
But this does not give us the right to go on doing so as we please.
No, when God says he will remove our transgressions the expectation is that we will change an no longer act in the way we have. He wants us to truly repent of our willful sins and stop sinning in the same way over and over again. Then He will remove them as far as the east is from the west.
However, sin can become a habit forming need for more and more. The enemy lulls us into a sense of security and almost rightness about what we are doing. The world does its part and continually markets everything to us that we should be walking away from. We get sucked into the hype and the marketing and our desires override scriptural wisdom and the desire to do what is right.
But when we choose to truly repent and move away from sin, God honors this by being nearer to us and making it easier for us to have strength better habits. We can condition ourselves to lead a less sinful life if we will only have the discipline to do so. The key to this is to replace bad habits with good. The human condition follows habits far more than anything else. We can replace them though.
