How do you know whether you are a legalistic or not? Mike Taylor provides us a simple test to check whether you are prone to a legalistic thinking:

“ask yourself, “How does God feel about me today?” If the answer is anything other than, “He is passionately in love with me,” then you are falling into the trap of thinking that God’s attitude towards us is determined by our performance rather than by his essential loving character. In other words, you’re thinking as though God’s favour is earned rather than freely given.”

We need to be careful not to throw the baby with the bath water, though. It’s not legalistic to practice spiritual disciplines or being obedient to God. We just need to keep our motives in check. We can’t earn God’s favor by practicing spiritual disciplines but they do help us to get to know God better.

How to kick legalism out for good? The same way we deal with any other trouble we have in life:

1 ) bringing our self-righteous tendencies, pride or anything else that keeps us from solely relying on grace at the foot of the cross. Daily.

2 ) praying that we would be able to give Glory all the glory. Daily.

3 ) keeping our motives checked. Daily.

4 ) praying that we would stay out of God’s way. Daily.

5 ) surrendering our need to judge to God. Daily.

6 ) filling ourselves with God’s love and grace. Daily.

7 ) rooting ourselves in the Word of God. Daily.

8 ) walking with God. Daily.

9 ) Emerging ourselves into the curriculum of grace. Daily.

10 ) washing ourselves with God’s grace. Daily.

 

Gracious God,
Be praised forever and ever!
Remedy legalism in our hearts.
Wash us clean with your grace.
Teach us to live in your grace.
Enable us to love like you do.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you keep legalism away?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you celebrate freedom in Christ by sending legalistic tendencies at the foot of the cross!

Photo courtesy of Charl Christiani