Dreaded Legalism

Wow! What a week. I know, I did not update last Thursday but I decided that although my goal is to update every week, I am not going to dread or force myself to by postponing things so I will make time to update my blog. I love this blog. I almost do not want to call it a “blog” because it is so much more to me than that. I really enjoy expressing myself and “venting” sometimes about what is going on in my life. The main reason I decided to begin this is because I wanted to speak on what all God has shown me and give those who may be reading this a inside look of someone that struggles everyday, as we all do, but also a look at someone who loves the Lord and will to continue to work everyday to become everything, He wants me to me.
I am not too prideful and I do not think that everyone is begging to learn all about my life. However, like me, I know there are individuals out there who would like to see they are not alone in some of their thoughts, feelings, fears, and struggles. I wrote my first blog post on another site a couple of years, ago. It was filled with simple thoughts, just about what I had been going through. After I posted the blog, I received so many responses, I decided that, at least in my group of friends, there was a need for this type of authentic expression.
The point of stating all of this is to say, that I love writing this blog, however I am not going to “force” to update, and give myself rules for something I enjoy. So many times we make rules and regulations for what we once enjoyed doing. I have struggles with this in so many areas. For example, I love reading my Bible, but I will make rules as to how much I should read in a week, how long I should read my Bible each day, and before I know it, I am so overwhelmed by the rules I have placed on something I once loved doing, that I am now burdened while doing it. I do this about working out too! I love working out, however I have a tendency in making this a rule of law. So much so, that if I do not work out on the days I have assigned, I will feel bad the whole day. This struggle is not just in the realm of religious activities. Rarely, any of our struggles just pertain to our spiritual relationship; it usually is within our secular activities as well.
How do we stop this? I believe it begins with our prayer life and asking the Lord to open our eyes and heart when we are turning “legalistic” in certain areas. If I am not constantly in prayer about this weakness, it will over take my life on most days. I am currently reading Matthew, and this is a great book to read when God is opening your eyes to this struggle. Jesus is constantly talking with the Sadducees, and the Pharisee about their rules and how it will get them nowhere. At this moment I am reminded of a verse in Matthew, which says “…I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Matthew 12: 7) In Matthew 12 the disciples are passing through a grain field on the Sabbath and are hungry. They begin to pick some of the grain. When the Pharisees saw this they stated the disciples were doing unlawful things on the Sabbath. Jesus stated that some things are greater than the Sabbath are. Jesus continues by stating “If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”. The Pharisees and Sadducees were obsessed with rules, laws, and regulations. They could never fully rely on Jesus because they were focused on the wrong thing. Sadly, Jesus knew most would not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because of their mindset.
This is a sobering thought, when I realize how serious this is, and the work I have to continue to be bondage free in this area. I am not so much focused on what others do, nor am I focused on the rules they must hold to. However, I am very focused on myself in this area. I may not worry about how many check marks others have checked off, but if I am not careful, I can be totally focused on how many I have checked off. When I feel God is pruning me in certain areas, sometimes I go overboard and think I have to react double to what God is doing.
This is most certainly not true. It was never me who sparked the urge to change inside myself anyways. God prunes us, and he gives us the strength to become more like Him. In our own earthly nature, we as humans will never want to change. However, with the Holy Spirit in us we are changed every day from glory to glory, to become more like our Father. There is nothing we can do to make this process go faster. Like wise, there is nothing we can do to change anything about us, without God. We can not read our Bible enough, hang out with our Christian friends enough, not watch certain t.v. shows enough and so on. Those are all good disciplines; however, just doing those things will never make us more like Jesus. If we understand that, then our understanding towards legalism should be clear, rules do not make us a better Christian.
However, it is hard to not feel like we have to do more. However, if we feel like we have to have rules, then we are not trusting God fully in our lives. If our heart is in the right place, God will continue to work in us to make us more like Him. Think about it, if you say you trust God completely in your life, you will also understand that God is in complete control of your life.
Does this mean we do not have to read our Bibles anymore, go to Church, evangelize, or continue to fellowship with our Christian friends? Absolutely not, those examples are very good disciplines, that I believe once we start God will give us the desire to continue. For example, once I stopped making myself read my Bible a certain amount of time a day, and realized how legalistic I was, I actually was reading my Bible more. Really, I was!! This is because I started enjoying reading my Bible again, and I didn’t make it a chore.
God began to show me so much more when I was able to read my Bible cheerfully and not because I was obligated to. Yes we should take our Bible reading seriously, actually my last blog talks all about that. However, we must pray and seek boundaries so that we are able to grow and learn in a way only God can nourish. Even if you do not know how to stop being legalistic or even know in what areas, just pray to God and ask Him to reveal to you areas, in which you are focusing less on God and more on your own status.
I pray these words have helped you today as they have helped me. God Bless you!