What are we carrying into the next season? Anger we have excused, words we wish we could take back or shame we still call our identity? As Yom Kippur approaches, Rabbi Curt Landry says it is time to bring those things before God.
“Repentance is not punishment, it’s realignment,” Landry said in a recent discussion of the Day of Atonement.
Yom Kippur follows Rosh Hashanah and the 10 Days of Awe, a period Landry described as an invitation to examine our hearts. In the biblical observance, the high priest made atonement for the people. Landry said the feast points us to Jesus, our high priest.
“This is about being honest and receiving,” he said.
For Landry, that honesty includes confessing sins we recognize and asking God to reveal those we have overlooked. He urged us to make time for quiet reflection despite the distractions that fill the days leading to Yom Kippur.
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Listen to What Our Words Reveal
Landry’s message does not stop at what we have done. He said our words can expose bitterness, offense and anger before we recognize how deeply those attitudes have taken root.
“Your mouth is like the dashboard of your car,” he said. What comes out of our mouths can warn us that something in our hearts needs attention.
Landry connected that warning to what God is calling us to do in the biblical year 5787. He spoke of exchanging words driven by human impulses for a “supernatural two-edged sword in our mouth.” First, he said, we must repent and guard what we say.
“Light and darkness and sin and righteousness don’t travel together,” Landry said.
That call to change is also a call to remember who we are. Landry warned against building our identity around a religious title or allowing a mistake to become a lasting label. As God’s sons and daughters, we can receive correction, seek forgiveness and move forward without remaining in shame.
He spoke directly to those of us whose family histories have left us feeling unwanted or trapped by the past.
“You cannot allow your past to form your future,” Landry said.
That is the hope at the heart of his Yom Kippur message: We can come honestly before God, receive the forgiveness Jesus has provided and enter the next season as His redeemed children.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
