Legalism

It's easy to fall into legalism, especially if you're human. Remember when you were a kid on the playground at school and everything had to be "fair"? It had to be fair according to your standards, right? It seems to be part of a kid's duty to make sure everyone is being fair. Kids are outraged and shocked by cheaters. They are appalled by liars. They can hardly even comprehend dishonesty.

Somewhere along the line, time causes a blur in the fairness barometer and the 'truth' becomes a bit cloudy. We make a lot of compromises growing up and learn how to excuse our mistakes.

"I was stuck in traffic." or "Tell them I'm not home." Our human condition is such that we find it necessary to prop ourselves up from time to time with a little "white" lie.

Then, suddenly we become born-again. We find the Truth. We are examples to the world of what a true Christian should be. In our zeal to uphold our Christian example, we allow self-righteousness to take over.

Instead of throwing ourselves on the mercy and righteousness of God, we try to pull ourselves up by our own boot-straps in order to present an unblemished picture of Christ to the world. Without realizing it, we allow the devil in through legalism and self-righteousness.

It's hard to know when we are doing it. Legalism seemed to be the curse of the pharisees who went to great lengths to make sure that they were giving ten percent of their herbs to God but failed to have love and mercy on their congregation.

Today I was talking to a friend about prayer and he insisted that one had to be taught the "proper" way to pray. He said that you had to say certain words first and "get in the spirit" or "bring down the spirit" before praying together.

Things like that that prevent you from freely talking to Jesus, as you would talk to one of your best friends, is an example of legalism. There are no rules for praying. Just do it. Talk.

He also mentioned that they'd taught him at his church how to read the Bible: one word at a time.

Well, that may be fine for you, but, to me, that's just too much. Yes, meditate on what you're reading. Think about it and digest it, by all means. But, if legalism is hampering you from opening up your Bible to freely read it, skip the rules!

If there are rules about "how to pray" and "how to read the Bible", then why didn't Jesus tells us how?

When His disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He gave them the Lord's Prayer. That's a wonderful prayer that generally covers everything. But, our relationship with God requires more than a memorized prayer.

Just talk to Jesus. He already knows your heart. He knows your thoughts before you even speak to Him.

Just read the Bible. It has words in it that form sentences and each sentence forms a thought. Don't struggle in the flesh, trying to squeeze deep meanings out of one single word at a time. Be blessed by it. Be fed by it. Get a good dose of it to keep your spirit satisfied throughout the day.

The enemy of our souls has lots of tricks up his sleeve and I bet he'd do anything to keep us from talking to God and from reading the Word. He wants to make it complicated and shroud it in mysterious legalism, making you think you have to go to Bible college for four years before you can begin to understand how to pray or how to read the Bible.

Give. Me. A. Break.