There is the great danger of squandering and dissipating our lives… Examine yourself; consider what really moves you. Be careful not to deceive yourself by “reasoning around the truth” (i.e., παρα + λογίζομαι), as James the Righteous puts it (James 1:22). Many people fool themselves by assuming they know or understand what is good, but they confine this ideal to a matter of opinion rather than experiencing it as a matter of the will…
According to philosopher Hannah Arendt, the lack of moral thought and reflection creates the “banality of evil,” that is, the unthinking acceptance of evil so that it is no longer regarded as outrageous or strange. People deaden their conscience by refusing to honestly engage questions such as: “What is goodness?” “Is evil real?” “Do we have an obligation to observe moral truth?” “What is the good life?” “How should we live?” “Do our actions really matter?” “Will God judge my life?” and so on. On the other hand, our culture has been so shocked by the ongoing practice of lawlessness and wickedness that people have lost their sense of shame. We are no longer shocked and outraged when we hear of the latest crimes or abuses of power in our postmodern world…. We must be careful, however, not to become evil by despising what is evil. For instance, we may feel so outraged and threatened by the evil actions of others that we deny their humanity, thereby becoming the very thing we hate.
The spiritual danger here is being “pulled apart” in opposite directions, dissipating the soul so that it will not be unified, focused and directed. Both loving and hating the good is a state of painful inner conflict, ambivalence, and self-contradiction. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? there is not one” (Job 14:4), yet this is our starting point: “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (Rom. 7:21). We are often willing and unwilling, or neither willing nor unwilling, and this makes us inwardly divided, weak, fragmented, anxious, and “soulless.” An honest faith that “wills one thing” binds the soul into a unity, or an authentic “self.” As King David said, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).
The way to be healed of a divided heart is to earnestly make a decision: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). There are no conditions given here — other than your raw need to connect with God for help. “Purify your hearts, you double-minded ones” (δίψυχοι, lit. “two-souled ones”); make up your mind and be unified within your heart: “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21). You are invited to come; God has made the way; your place at the table has been set and prepared.
God responds to those who sincerely cry out to him (Psalm 145:18). He is “near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). Indeed, salvation is as close as your own mouth and heart (Rom. 10:8-13). But how many are the days of your life? How many opportunities for you to make up your mind? How long will you go “limping” between two opinions? Therefore choose this day whom you will serve. Make the first step; open your heart, and the LORD will then help you make the wholehearted decision to “seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.” Amen.
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Repentance means that we believe that the kindness of God can give life to our dead hearts. Repentance is therefore first of all a matter of faith, of believing in the miracle of God. And though it is a great gift from heaven, repentance requires honesty and acknowledgment of the truth. We must confess our inner poverty, our neediness, and mourn over the loss and hurt caused by our sin (Matt. 5:3-5). Repentance turns away from our attempts to defend or justify ourselves and instead turns to God to heal our separation from Him (Rom. 8:3-4). This turning of the heart to God for healing and life is the essence of teshuvah wherein our old nature is buried and all things are made new (2 Cor. 5:17).
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said that life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward, and consequently the present hour provides the only real opportunity you have to examine the present state of your soul… Therefore “repent one day before you die,” and that day is today, since no one knows the day or the hour of his death. The midrash notes that the word 
Those who evade the truth about reality – those who willingly suppress the truth and choose to ignore the ultimate existential pathos of the human condition – must “steal” meaning and a sense of value from the heart of faith. “If a human being did not have an eternal consciousness, if underlying everything there was only a wild, fermenting power that writhing in dark passions produced everything, be it significant or insignificant, if a vast, never appeased emptiness hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?” (Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling). The hidden source of anxiety is to be lost to real meaning – to sense the dread of the inevitable and the unknown and to be utterly confounded and devoid of direction in the face of it. The Torah of Yeshua is heeded by the “impoverished of spirit” who know they must “find God or die.” It is first a word spoken to the shattered of heart and crushed of spirit. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” We all desperately need God, and it is a profound tragedy to be unresponsive to real hope. Friend, if you sense the invitation of the Spirit, which moves unseen as the wind, then draw near while there is still time! “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (Isa. 55:6).
The advent of the “
One of the greatest mistakes is to forget who you really are and your beloved status before the LORD… “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isa. 43:1). Forgetting who you are leads to forgetting who the LORD is, just as forgetting who the LORD is leads to forgetting who you are…
“Who shall ascend to the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to vanity (לא־נָשָׂא לַשָּׁוְא) and who does not swear deceitfully” (Psalm 24:3-4). Yeshua expounded: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’” (Matt. 5:8). The Greek word translated “pure” is katharos (καθαρός), sometimes used describe the cleansing of a wound (catharsis), or to describe the unalloyed quality of a substance revealed through refining fire (the corresponding Hebrew word for the “pure of heart” (בַּר־לֵבָב), used in Psalm 24:4, comes from a root (בָּרַר) that likewise means to purify by fire).