Staying Stuck or Starting from Scratch?

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How foolish can you be?
After starting your new lives in the Spirit,
why are you now trying to become perfect
by your own human effort?
Galatians 3:3 NLT

husband John hiking at sabino canyon, tucson, az

As you will recall (Duty or Devotion), I chose to believe God’s unconditional love for me apart from any of my “doing” or earning through my fleshly, religious self-effort.

And so I began to interpret everything I heard in messages, read in books, and interacted with in conversations based on this foundational truth of God’s unconditional love. So the heaviness and bondage began falling away. The Holy Spirit was setting me free. And I was Starting from Scratch.

First, I threw out my masterpiece of a prayer list (set up daily, weekly, monthly, even quarterly) – I hated it!!!! So I said to God, “I hate praying. I’m not praying unless YOU show me what true prayer is. Obviously, what I’m doing is not it!”

So I stopped “praying”… for days … weeks … maybe even a month?  (I can’t remember how long). Then before I even realized it, instead of prayer being a formulation in my mind, prayer began to well up from within, from the Spirit who was united with my spirit in the depths of my being. Prayer then became freedom and intimacy and relationship. 

Little by little, I did this with other so-called “spiritual activities” I did because “I should if I’m a spiritual Christian” (like going to meetings at church, conferences, reading Christian HOW-TO books, memorizing Scripture, fasting, etc). I stopped until and if I could do them from freedom and relationship. 

I hesitated to share this “starting from scratch” with others, thinking that maybe the Holy Spirit was just doing this with me. But I heard former pastor and Bible teacher Pete Briscoe share about his wife Libby’s throwing off of legalisms and embracing her freedom in her relationship with the indwelling Christ, the Living Word:

Libby said to Pete one day, “I’m not reading the Bible for awhile.”

Pete was appalled! By his own admission, he himself was still living in performance and it would be two more years for him to finally get what Libby already realized … her union with Christ.

So Pete protested and asked her “Why?” 

She responded, “Because it’s dry and I’m not getting anything out of it and I’m only doing it legalistically. So I asked Jesus to draw me back in.”

And Pete observed, “So she quit reading, but it wasn’t long before the Living Word who dwells within drew her back to the written Word, and she had a voracious appetite for the Scriptures.” She had a new Source and a new Focus.

And then I learned that Grace counselors, like Mark Maulding, counselor and president of Grace Life International, suggest this very thing to counselees.

How do you break the pattern of living under self-imposed religious rules? The answer may feel wrong at first, but here’s the best course of action to break the stranglehold on your life. When you identify a rule you put on yourself make a conscious effort to “skip it” … and do something that makes you feel free.*

As Bible teacher Andrew Farley says, “relaxing in God is the neglected spiritual discipline.” So why not join me in starting from scratch by “relaxing/ resting in God.”

The GOOD NEWS for us is that Jesus Himself invites us to HIS REST.  The rest that Jesus offers in not primarily physical rest but rather “deep, inner tranquility (anapausis in Greek) even in the midst of the labors and the circumstances of the day.” Rest indeed!

So NEXT TIME, we will join Jesus as He teaches a crowd in Galilee, recorded in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 11.

In the meantime, DEAR READER:

  • What spiritual practice do you love and do from freedom, want to, and love for your God?

  • Is there a practice that is heavy and “a should” or “ought to” for you?
    Talk to God about it.
    May I suggest you stop for a time and wait on the Lord. See what He may do.

  • Remember, God’s way is not about earning but “receiving” and “letting.”
    We will talk more about that next time.

*Mark Maulding, God’s Best Kept Secret: Christianity is Easier Than You Think,
p. 102-103