We Begin The Month of Elul

Today we begin the final month before the Fall Feasts - the month of Elul. If you attended or watched the wonderful message this past Shabbat from Rabbi Coyle, you understand much more clearly the focus on teshuvah - repentance - during the 40 days from today until Yom Kippur. 

God has shared message after message with us this past year on what it means to be a true disciple...to be a doer, a servant who says, "Yes, Lord, הנני (Hineni) - here I am." We have committed as a congregation to this year being the Year of Doing. Let us finish strong!

I challenge all of us to daily go before the Lord with a truly broken and contrite heart, asking Him to distill all of our wants and needs into one single desire: to SEEK, HEAR, and DO His will and His will alone in order to grow His Kingdom. I pray that finishing this Year of Doing strong is the momentum that will encourage us for the rest of our lives.

Elul is meant to be a month of deep contemplation - of assessing our lives as to where we have fallen short - and to turn from those places back to the Father. Don't miss out on the opportunity to do so, your life will never be the same.

The Hebrew word for Elul (אִלוּל) is often understood as an acronym for the phrase found in Song of Songs 6:3: "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li (אני לדודי ודודי לי)," meaning "I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me." This phrase is interpreted as a reflection of our soul's deepest desire for repentance and a return to God, which can come only as a response to God's grace. We are His beloved because He has made us His beloved first.

As you commit to teshuvah this month, lean into God's grace, His love and His power to make your life what it longs to be - a fully surrendered servant to The Most High.

I will be posting a message from time to time during this 40-day period of Teshuvah. In the meantime, here is one of my go to songs for the month of Elul:

"Make My Life A Prayer To You"  - Keith Green/Melody Green