There's Always a Catch

So as some of you may know, I grew up Mennonite which many people confuse with Amish. If you see me now with my current giant beard you may believe so. Anyhow, being Mennonite and actually having some connection to the Amish culture, though I usually deny it. The Amish have a very legalistic religion. The thought is that if you do enough and/or live just the right way that you will earn your way into heaven. Throughout the Bible it even talks about how our salvation is found through Christ and through a relationship with Him. If you have time, check out Ephesians 2:8 and Titus 3:5 as two examples about how what we do can not save us. So I started to ponder why. And honestly, the whole thing really started spinning in my head after reading an article about Amish "technology". The article was basically talked about the things the Amish have done to be able to use things that traditionally require electric. So they do things like have a cell phone that they don't bring in the house, or set up a phone at the end of the drive so it's not in their house. At first I was baffled and how they are simply finding loopholes to get around their "rules". It seemed silly.

That's the point I started to look at my own Christian walk. Growing up Mennonite, I grew up in a legalistic type of setting as well. You should do this and you shouldn't do that. OK there are things we should and shouldn't do. I shouldn't kill someone and I shouldn't lie. But if I rely on those things to get my into heaven, I'm only going to search out the loopholes around them. No this probably isn't true for everyone and maybe I"m being to general. Stop and think about it though. How often do you set a rule for yourself simply to search for the loophole around it. If we are relying on our own ability to follow the rules we will simply fall short and fail. The Bible even talks about it. The reference evades me at the moment but essentially states if we rely on ourselves to follow the Old Testament rules, we will fail. It strikes me how often I try to earn credit with God. It doesn't work. I always end up failing. So what can I do?

If you reread the verses from above you will see that we are saved by faith and my consciously accepting Christ's Grace for us. This doesn't mean that I can do whatever I want and, he its cool cuz God saved me. But it means we must focus on our relationship. When we can sit and focus on God and what He has and what He is speaking into our lives, then we change. We don't change by our own desire or attempts. We change because God changes our hearts and creates in us what we can truly be. He is the only one who can change us. If we do it on our own, we fail.

This is one of the most eye opening things for me to really see. I am a perfectionist by nature and when I fail I take it personally. So when I fail to follow a rule I believe God set, I get down on myself. I'm not growing. For me, it usually means falling deeper into sin due to frustration and anger at myself. This becomes a vicious circle. There is absolutely no way I can rely on myself to be able to please God with what I can do, because I will end up in a bad place. Not only is there no way for me to never break the rules, when I do, it makes things worse. 

So back to this relationship with God part. When I truly have a relationship with Him and am relying on Him to save me, it isn't the end of the world when I screw up. I seek God, and He helps me to grow through the experience. He picks me up, brushes me off, and helps to show me where I went wrong. He isn't worried that I am not perfect, simply seeking to be in a relationship with me. A God that loves me enough to truly WANT a relationship with me. It continues to boggle my mind that the Creator of the universe would want to know me, and want me to deeply know Him. 

Hope you got something from this. As always, feel free to contact me either through comments on the blog or email at optimisticprime15@gmail.com. Please tweet, facebook, google+ (I know, no one actually uses google+) or whatever else you deem worthy my blog link to get it out there. If you have anything you'd like prayer for, let me know. If there is the first blog you've read, feel free to read some of my older stuff to and comment on that as well :). I love you guys and there is nothing you can do about. 

Optimistic Prime