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Closure

Closure

One thing we know for sure is that time marches on. Some embrace the new with great optimism and others are filled with regret for what they did not accomplish.

Eccl 3:1-8 3 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:  2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,  3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,  5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,  6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,  7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,  8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

As King Solomon speaks of seasons we need to examine what season we are in. Seasons change and in order to move from one season to the next we must finish the lesson God is trying to teach us in each season.

I love sharing quotes I find especially when I have no idea who the author is. Billy Vaughn is credited with saying, “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”

In popular psychology circles there is a term referred to as CLOSURE. In their vocabulary it is the conclusion of an event or emotional state that comes when there is a firm solution and a definitive ending point. The door to this event or emotional state is closed and it is a concept which allows an individual to move past an event. It involves a letting go, a moving on, CLOSURE!

Sounds pretty good, but is this a biblical concept and why is it relevant? Isa 43:16-19 16 This is what the Lord says — he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,  17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Sounds like Closure to me or is there more to it than just leaving the old behind?

In the natural not all parts of the harvest is edible. There are seeds in oranges and peels that are not really edible. The chaff is not edible by humans, but is great for cattle. The seed on the other hand is fully edible and a great source of nutrition to most of the world.

In G-D’s economy closure is more like the harvest or the refiner’s process. We are called to hold onto the lessons we have learned and release what is not beneficial. We are called to burn off the dross and bring forth the gold.

When Abraham was called to leave his home and go to a place he had never been he left behind an idol worshipping lifestyle, but harvested from his former life those skills that would serve him in his new life.

When Rabbi Shaul had his Damascus Road experience and personally encountered the Messiah he did not leave everything behind even though he was a new creation. He harvested his knowledge of the life he led, let go of teachings and behaviors that would not be beneficial to his new spirit filled life and became one of the most effective Jewish Evangelists of all time.

As we enter into a new season what are some of things we need to leave behind?

LEAVE YOUR RESENTMENT BEHIND

Each of us resent something. We might resent something we have said and done, or we might resent what someone else has said and done. But along with resentment comes unforgiveness. And unforgiveness is a very dangerous thing to keep in our lives.

Yeshua said that if we forgive, God will forgive us. But if we do not forgive, God will not forgive us. Now, we must understand that to forgive does not mean the same thing as to forget. We cannot erase our memories, but we can erase our resentment.

Matt 6:14-15 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

LEAVE YOUR WORRIES BEHIND

Worries are very much like rocking chairs. They give you something to do, but they never take you anywhere while you’re doing it.

When we worry, it ends up taking over our every thought and it becomes the predominate thought of our lives. Yet, it is also worry that causes mental illness, stress, and many other things that destroy our lives. Worry has killed more people than hard work ever did. Worry opens the door to fear.

Matt 6:25-34 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

LEAVE YOUR FAILURES BEHIND

We try so hard to be the best we can be, but we don’t always succeed. And it is in those times when we don’t succeed, that we get discouraged because we have failed. But what have we failed in? We may not have achieved just what we originally set out to achieve, but we haven’t failed. The only time you fail is when you don’t try to do anything! We need to understand that God has called us to have faith long before He ever called us to achieve. We are called to be in Messiah, and as long as we are in Him, we are successful.

2 Cor 13:5-6 5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Messiah Yeshua is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test? 6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.

You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, ‘I release the need for this in my life’.

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