Applying 10 themes of Rosh Hashanah to my daily life! Day 10: This day reminds me of New Beginnings.
First, because Rosh Hashanah is the start of the new year, and an opportunity to look back at last year, focus on what we’d like to do differently this year, our resolutions, and most importantly our renewed focus on God – His purpose for us, who He is, and how He sees us.
Second, because today is the 10th “Day of Awe,” and the start of Yom Kippur. The primary theme of Yom Kippur is that of atonement. As the Israelites were cleansed as a nation from their sin for an entire year, we are reminded that our sins have been washed clean by the blood of Yeshua. As the High Priest could enter only once a year, and that for atonement of sin, we can boldly enter into His throne room of grace (Heb. 4:16). When I consider how holy He is, and that I can enter into the Holy of Holies (Heb. 10:19,22), it makes me want to fall flat on my face in awe and worship of Him, and in thankfulness for His atonement. It also speaks volumes to me about how He sees me — that He sees me as pure gold in the Holy of Holies; that He sees me as cleansed and pure; that He sees me as holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Eph 1:4).
Yom Kippur also reminds me that no matter how many times I fall, and no matter how badly I fail – when I confess and repent and use my weapons of warfare — He is faithful and just to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua (Rom. 8:1) . When we fail, we don’t have to beat ourselves up, punish ourselves, or dwell on our failures and mistakes. I mess up all the time! As deeply as God has already healed many of my strongholds, He is always showing me deeper layers of my heart that need to be healed. Satan and his accusing spirits are always there trying to convince me that those old lies and messages really are true, and that God has not healed them. I agree with those accusing spirits and allow my buttons to get pushed. I act out of fears, rejection, bitterness, and worthlessness. I allow others to determine my worth, I focus on the negative about situations. However, I find that the more I allow God to heal my heart, the less time I spend in those places of bondage. I am quicker to recognize my sin, more ready and able to use my weapons of warfare, and as a result, less and less of my life is stolen or robbed by the enemy through these strongholds.
I’ve also learned to recognize that God will never speak to me through accusations. When I blow it, He is always there to lovingly help me to see my sin, and help me to get up and to grow closer to Him from it, to see myself more as He sees me, to see Him more truly for who He is. He never leaves me or forsakes me (Heb. 13:5), and that “never” means even when I’m not perfect and when I fail! A visual that helps me is picturing that God has never let go of my right hand, it’s that I have given the enemy a handle in my life with my left hand! The enemy and his accusing spirits want to crush me through my failure, make me feel more “bad,” more worthless, more fearful, more isolated, that I need to hide from God, and that God can’t use me. Those are the messages of the enemy, and one of Satan’s favorite deceptions is to get us to believe that those messages are coming from God, instead of from Him. Always remember that Satan is the accuser, not God (Rev. 12:10).
So as we focus on this new year, and we remember Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we can be overwhelmed with thankfulness and awe that because of Yeshua’s perfect sacrifice for us, God is faithful to forgive, and to cleanse and heal us as we recognize our sin, confess and repent, and use our weapons of warfare. God’s heart is to heal our hearts. His heart is always to use our failures for good, to use them to draw us closer to Himself, so that we experience more of His love, wisdom and power in our lives, and we show forth more of Him to the world around us.
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18)
L’Shanah Tovah! “For a good year!”
