Just some simple thoughts................
The month of Elul, that we are currently in, is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holidays (Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement and Sukkot or The Feast of Tabernacles, see Leviticus 23 to read more). Put very simply it's a perfect opportunity to examine our hearts and clean up, so to speak, before coming into the presence of a Holy Elohim. Really, thinking this over, this should be an everyday pursuit no matter the time of year. How different would our relationships be, all of them, if this was something we did continually?
Psalm 51
King James Version (KJV)
51 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Our relationship with Father and our relationships with others can sometimes get pretty convoluted. Very much like a pipe in my kitchen sink. You might find this an odd comparison but read on. We had a little bit of a back up in our kitchen sink last year. It was pretty ugly. It is amazing how junk can get stuck in there and you don't even know it until it's too late and the sink is barely draining. My husband is a pretty handy guy so he got right in there and started cleaning it all out. I felt sorry for him when I saw what was coming out! Yuck! It looked and smelled awful but he was resolute and calm and got the job done. When it was all over I so was grateful. The drain worked like it was brand new and the smell and mess were gone.
Our hearts, I believe, can work very similarly to that pipe. In our physical hearts, when we neglect our health or as we age, we can develop plaque in our arteries. If that plaque grows very thick a serious back up can occur and then the blood flow to the rest of the heart can become sluggish and dangerously slow which can rob us of our energy, vitality and good health. Sometimes this built up plaque can cause a complete closure of an artery and then parts of the heart will begin to die. This condition can result in death if it is allowed to continue. Likewise, our spiritual hearts can begin to harden over time when we have neglected to examine them, confess, repent and ask Father to make us clean from our sin. We have to seek Him, speak to Him, spend time with Him and ask Him to reveal the hidden things to us. Sometimes there are old hurts, resentments and unforgiveness in there that we may not even be aware of. Maybe we have learned to justify a thing or just put a different label on it rather than call it what it is. If we truly desire to be spiritually well once more and most importantly be right with Him we must surrender these things and allow Him to do what He must to make us clean once more. Our relationships with others will suffer if we are not in good relationship with the Father and our relationship with the Father will suffer if we are not in good relationship with others. It's just the way it works.
Romans 12:18
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with all people.
Communication is crucial. Yeshua (Jesus) and the Father are one. "Echad" in Hebrew. Yeshua was always, and I mean always, talking to the Father and still is. His prayer was that we would be One as He and the Father were One. (John 17:22) AND He said that the world would believe that the Father sent Him IF we would be one in THEM (Yeshua and the Father). Sadly, I often see groups of individuals so bent on being right that they throw their relationships right out the window. The baby goes out with the bathwater so to speak. That which should be most precious to us is discarded in the pursuit of pride. How quick we are to do that! How deceitful our hearts can be! They betray our best interests pretty quickly if we are not sober to our own tendencies. If we don't communicate with the Father we won't know that there are issues adversely impacting our hearts until it becomes an emergency, spiritually speaking, and in that condition we can not be one with Him or anyone else for that matter. Our perceptions will be colored by our spiritual pain and sickness. We will not be able to hear Him properly with all that gunk clogging up the line and when we do hear Him our flawed perceptions will taint what we think we might have heard. If we don't communicate with one another and work to resolve the gunk that has collected and built up between us imaginations can come into play and resentments can build, just like the plaque can build up in our physical hearts. This state of being will rob us of our life and vitality and make us spiritually ill. We may then see any attempted communication on the part of the Father or others that love and care for us as confrontational because now the hardness that has developed and collected in our hearts must be worked out.That process can be very painful. It's a terrible condition to be in. It happens and when it does we need to address immediately it to prevent it from becoming worse. Or even worse than worse if you get my drift.
This happens to be the month of Elul, which is, I believe a model for how we should always conduct ourselves. Let us humbly seek to allow the Father to search us, purge that which is evil and might have invaded our hearts and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we might be found clean and rejoice when He comes to Tabernacle among us!
Blessings to you in Messiah Yeshua,
More than a Conqueror
