All About the Heart

We have rules in our house. Rules like...

• no band-aid unless there is blood.
• no hitting,kicking,punching etc, each other.
• at home, you must pee sitting down. For mom's sanity, you must.
• you don't have to make your bed, but you do need to clear a path in the Legos so that she can put away your clothes.
• There are others, but you get the idea

Do you know what happens? My children find ways around these rules. For example, Jakob came up to me this morning with an old "owie" (it had a scab already) He claimed he needed a band-aid and I gave him "the rule." Two minutes later, he returned, to show me the blood he now had...due to peeling the scab off. Even a 2 year old knows there's ways around the rules. He got the band-aid.

I've been thinking (again.) This time, it's about legalism. Probably because it's the last chapter I've read in Breaking Free :) There is such a fine line between godly rules and legalism, and it all has to do with the heart. Anyways, I've been pondering why legalism, or rules to follow is so much easier than genuinely opening ourselves up to loving Jesus and those around us and examining our own hearts.

Here's what I think it all breaks down to...legalism allows us to not look at our motives, which means we never really have to deal with ourselves. It only requires a list of do's and dont's. Obeying a list of rules we've made never requires us to even connect with God, instead, we look at the list and check it off. Yuck.

I am completely and utterly annoyed by legalistic people. I meet them, and I want to run for the hills. It's the very thing I never want to be. Yet, there have been times in my own life when legalism has ruled. At the time, I didn't realize it. But, looking back, I can see it now. It also coincides with the times in my life that pride had free reign. Beth Moore uses a phrase that "Microscopes replace mirrors." How true that is. May the Holy Spirit never allow me to look away from the mirror.

With my boys...I want them to grow up seeing first hand how wonderful a relationship with Jesus is. They will have rules, obviously. But I don't want them to just learn how to obey the rules without understanding and accepting where they come from AND learning how to examine their own hearts. We can find ways around rules, but when confronted with the state of our own hearts...there's just no way around that. Legalism creates resentment in peoples hearts...because deep down inside, we know we can't be good enough.

Today I am praying that in my own heart, and in the hearts of my boys, legalism would not be allowed. That we wouldn't minimize who Jesus is...into a bunch of rules. Rather, that the Holy Spirit will help us to show our faith for what it really is. May we not get in the way of Jesus. May we fully appreciate the love, mercy, and forgiveness He has shown us and then go out and show that to others.

Happy Friday!

Pin It