Rabbi Linda/Bethel Temple Fellowship
Shalom and Happy New Year!
New Years is a tradition about many things. For many people it is mostly a new start.
To the Jewish people, the letter “Chet” is also the number 8 meaning life(new beginning). It is letting go of the past mistakes and rebellion towards God, and realizing there’s a need to make changes for better. Let us all do so in action, not just with empty words.
Having had COVID, I struggled to breathe like most people. Today I am more thankful to God for each breath I take. Each breath I breathe is His life in me. Each breath is a new beginning.
Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Health states that the normal respiration rate for an adult is 12 to 20 breaths per minute. Only God can do such a thing!
Are your resolutions reality for life? Do you keep them, or are they idle words? Do your emotions get caught up in the moment? Before the clock strikes 12, does your carriage turn into a pumpkin?
Personally, I do not want to live in the past.
One day you were fine and the next day, you have COVID. Some have lived and some have died. Many were not ready for the government mandates, death, sickness, or financial problems. They are things many want to forget. Let us believe for the better and move forward.
Many of us have learned a big lesson. America is considered a superpower. However, that does not exempt us from tragedies. We are still human, and anything can happen.
The rich may think money is their way out. However, what happens when their money cannot help?
The plagues of Egypt and the suffering they experienced, was devastating. For all believers and non believers, those having faith in God had deliverance from death and destruction. Those putting their faith in men governing nations ended up with nothing but loss. Those putting their faith in hope in God were freed.
Pharaoh was unwilling to relinquish his control, and continued matching his witchcraft against Moses, until God said “enough is enough!” Pharaoh was forced to free the people.
Today is no different. People try to match God with their witchcraft of manipulation in order to control people with fear and money.
“Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:5-6)
Trust God’s Love: Your past, present, and future depends on who you put your trust in.
You may say, “It is not so easy. Bills and sickness are still lingering.” Have no fear because YHVH is here. You can do all things through the Messiah who strengthens you. He makes a way where there is no other way. Nothing is impossible with God.
My 17 year old granddaughter, a writer in the making, wrote the following:
“Most resolutions we will never complete, because they never meant enough to us to be concrete.
Are we changing for the world or are we Changing for something greater?
The decisions we make every year become major. But don’t beat yourself up over spilt milk.
Let the past not cling onto us with gripping hands.
For our future ahead of us expands.” – Alexis Bonner
Do not carry your hurts of the past into the present, subsequently into your future. Take the new beginning! Rid yourself of the old, and ring in the new. The old man has passed away. All things become new. Let God heal your Heart, Spirit, Soul, and Mind.
Let Yeshua do a new thing in your present life and prepare for an amazing future.
God picks up your broken pieces. He is the potter; molding and making you. He is the ALPHA and OMEGA; Past, present and future. The beginning and the end.
Hebrew word : shemitah -release