We are walking in today: Weekend Meditation--Renewal In A Season Of Wisdom!!!!
Witness renew throughout the Bible: H2318 chadash-- to be new, renew, repair; make anew; to repair; to renew oneself
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew H2318 a right spirit within me.
The Torah testifies.........……
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The prophets proclaim..................
1 Samuel 11:14 Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew H2318 the kingdom there.
The writings bear witness............
2 Chronicles 15:8 And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed H2318 the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD.
Psalm 103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed H2318 like the eagle's.
Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest H2318 the face of the earth.
1 Corinthians chapter 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
How quickly the days go by; how quickly the seasons change! It seems that we’ve just begun the task of teshuvah and now Rosh Hashanah is upon us. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why Hebrew tradition sets aside an entire month to help us get ready. We need the month of Elul to help us slow down and reconnect with what matters most of all-- our relationship with The Most High, others and ourselves.
But perhaps we’ve wasted time this past month, squandering the opportunity to undergo self-examination and to take account of our lives before The Most High? It’s never too late, really. The gates of repentance are always open. “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart” (Heb. 3:15).
Though it’s a difficult and sometimes painful process, the primary goal of teshuvah is healing from the oppression of our sins and the restoration of our relationships. Someone once said that great sins are like great possessions-- both are difficult to give up. We have to be willing to “give up our sins” in order to find inner healing (and :giving up our sins” also may mean breaking free of the “pride-shame” cycle). Often we can only get to this point when we are afflicted and weary of our soul’s sickness. We get sick of our sickness. Looked at this way, our afflictions are a really gift from The Most High to help us turn and surrender to Him. As the psalmist wrote: “It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71).
It’s important to remember that one of the main goals of HaSatan is to induce a sense of forgetfulness and apathy. HaSatan wants you to forget that you are a son or daughter of the King. The entire venture of teshuvah presupposes that you are created in the image of The Most High and therefore you have infinite value and dignity. This is all the more evident in light of the awesome ransom that Yeshua our Most High paid in order to reconcile your soul with The Most High. What is the greatest sin you can commit in your life? To forget what The Most High has done for you. Remaining asleep, unmindful of your true identity is one of the most tragic things of life. Therefore Rosh Hashanah is sometimes called the “Day of Remembrance” (Lev. 23:24). The blast of the shofar is meant to jolt us from our sleep. We are to remember who we really are-- and to remember that The Most High is our King. The person who says, “Tomorrow I will do teshuvah” really is saying, “Not now.’’ And then tomorrow comes and he says, “Not now.” And in this way his entire life passes by, saying, “Not now.” Finally one day he wakes up only to find himself already dead.
The essence of Torah is to love your neighbor as yourself. Teshuvah means, among other things, understanding how far we are removed from this ideal and how we might move to remedy the breach. This is a daily task, an ongoing duty. But we cannot give away what we don’t have, so if we’re deficient in self-love, we will be unable to genuinely love others, too. Part of loving others is the obligation to forgive yourself for your sins. For some people, this might mean “accepting that they are accepted” by The Most High. Real change is difficult-- some would even say impossible-- though with The Most High all things are possible-- including the miracle of a heart of stone turning to flesh.
Forgiving others is a way to be free of their hold over us. It is letting go of the pain of the past and finding courage to press on in hope. Some of the sages recommend beginning your prayers with, “I hereby forgive all who have hurt me this day.”
Shema Selah we must turn to be renewed in our thoughts, hearts and minds to remain aligned with the Most High!
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