January 6, 2012 But that's legalistic!

Matt. 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Funny how those words, "But that's legalistic!" seems to justify not doing good things. Theoretically it is said, "If you do something because you have to (whether you make yourself do it or you have developed the habit because someone advised it), then it doesn't count to God. It is just legalistic."

Maybe that could be true, but let me borrow some words from Dennis Okholm: "It is strange that we take the advice of our dentist and floss regularly to maintain healthy gums or follow doctor's orders to exercise on schedule to enhance our physical well-being, while we often spurn the counsel of spiritual physicians and trainers to develop habits that will maintain and enhance our spiritual lives."

It seems to me that the trend these days is against having a regular quiet time with God or a regular prayer time because "Then it is not spontaneous or done out of a desire to be with God." The idea of doing something out of an intentional habit seems to be frowned upon, but why?

We do lots of things out of habit: we eat three meals a day, and I wonder how many times it is because we waited until we were hungry. We brush our teeth, we bathe, we dress every morning almost on auto-pilot. We take our vitamins and drink our orange juice, without thinking, because we do it every day and it is good for us.

But we say it is legalistic to communicate that someone should set aside time/times every day to be alone with God, to read His Word, to listen for His Spirit to commune with ours or to pray - to talk things over with Him. Maybe building those things into our lives is necessary in order to strengthen the flesh so that when temptation comes, we are ready...or perhaps we have prayed away some temptation by praying regularly. Or maybe doing these things shows God that we do love Him, and we do want to be alone with Him, just as we would want to be alone with someone human that we love.

I think those words, "That's legalistic!" have become powerful tools of the evil one to discourage God's people from building healthy spiritual habits. Can the words be true? I suppose. Sometimes.  But I think they are far more often tools to discourage than truths to encourage.