Our faith works at it's best when we understand grace. We realize that our standing with our Father is in our Lord Jesus and not in ourselves when we understand grace. Some of us know that we no longer operate under the Law and some of us do not. And, some of us who know we're not under the Law still put ourselves under self imposed laws and practices. We have constructed laws of our own and impose ourselves to things that help us to feel righteous.
When we impose self made laws on ourselves, we aren't relying on grace to provide our righteousness. We placed certain dress codes, certain number of prayer times, certain days of worship and even certain eating habits upon ourselves. Don't misunderstand my place of observation on this matter. There's nothing wrong with dressing modestly or praying or even having good eating habits, but we don't do them to make ourselves righteous or to gain favor with our Father.
The desire to pray for a set amount of time isn't wrong unless you bring yourself under a "law" to do so. If you think that failing to fulfill this time period of prayer makes you displeasing to God, then this is not grace. Dressing modestly is always a good idea for both Christians and non-Christians, but if you think that not doing so causes you to lose favor with God or hinders your relationship with the Father, then this is an open door the enemy uses to bring you under fear and condemnation.
It's usually a good idea for Christians and non-Christians to limit their intake of sugar, salt, fatty foods and preservatives, but it's my own conscience that condemns me when I overdue my intake of them and not the Holy Spirit. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous. We must know how to receive and maintain our righteousness by faith in Jesus. I'm not saying that once we're saved then you can live any way you wish, but I'm saying you must listen to the Holy Spirit.
We have developed certain things in our Christian walk that have left the door open to the "great deceiver." When we don't fulfill all of our self imposed laws, then we feel deserving of punishment from God for our disobedience.
The Church has taught and held this belief for many years. There are many who inflict pain and punishment on themselves in order to become more holy or more humble in God's eyes. I recall a lady who cut her wrists and the bend of her knees with a can lid to show her love for Jesus. A voice told her that he was Jesus and that he shed his blood for her, so if she loved him, then she should bleed for him.
You and I both know that God would never ask anyone to do that in order to prove their love for Him, but she was deceived by her own conscience to do so. We have an innate need to worship and serve God within us. Man was created for this purpose and for fellowship with our Father.
We need to be careful about imposing self made laws and regulations upon ourselves. Grace has freed us from all these things. We must have discipline in our Christian lives, but it must come from the Word and from the Holy Spirit and from the new man who is alive to God. Man's rituals, laws and disciplines are the very things Jesus set us free from.
We keep trying to "help God out" with our salvation instead of simply trusting Jesus with the entire thing. We measure ourselves against other Christians as though some of us are more "saved" than others. We judge the way we dress and act against the way others do. This is what the Word calls "self righteousness" and it is man made law.
Galatians 5:6 (Amplified) says, "For (if we are) in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love." It's not in what we "think it should be," but how He thinks we should be that matters. We should not be doing things just to please man, but we should do them because we love God and His people. Being a Christian is not a religion, but it's a relationship with the Father.
I don't visit those in the hospital and pray for others because it's my "job," but I do so because that's the heart of my Father. I don't search the scriptures just to have something to teach or preach, but I do so to learn more about Him and share what I've learned with His people. Christianity isn't a performance, but it's a life lived through us. We shouldn't be as concerned about our living for Him, but about allowing Him to live through us.
Jesus said that if we will clean the inside of the cup, then the outside will be made clean. If we allow the Holy Spirit and grace to fix the inside (our new man), then the flesh (the old man) will come into subjection. We knew the difference between right and wrong even before we were saved. God placed His law in our hearts, so we knew it was wrong to kill, lie and steal before being saved. We abstained from doing these things, for the most part, even while we were in the world. Thus, for people to say that God's grace is a license to sin is a life. What God did say is that He would put all these things into the power of His Spirit and will enable us to walk above the lust of the flesh without struggle. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the (Holy) Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit) then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
We set ourselves up to fail when we impose laws upon ourselves. We cannot fail when we walk in grace. God will always bring us through saying, "My grace is sufficient for you." When we fail (and we will), His grace will bring us out of the failure into His favor, until we learn to walk out this failure in the Holy Spirit.
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