I've been studying Galatians lately, and I've had some rumbling in my mind about Law and Grace. Listening to people like Wayne Jacobsen and some of the other folks around the net has just reaffirmed to me that the Christian life is not about rules, rituals, or religion, but about relationship.

Trusting in anything, other than Jesus, to bring about righteousness in our lives is doomed to failure. Why? Because those things actually separate us from grace.

Gal 5:4-5
I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit.

There are some other things I've found on the net regarding this topic that I wonder about. For instance, in a post about having daily quiet time with God I found this comment:

"This sounds like another burdensome rule of the "religious" to me. Any exercise we may do can only be worthwhile if the benefit outweighs the effort. I get the feeling that anything we have to "schedule" or force ourselves to do, is not really valuable enough to do in the first place. To me, relegating ourselves to ritualistic obligations only takes away from the authentic lifegiving interactions we have with God as we journey."

Now, I might agree with this comment if the person having "quiet time" was trusting in the quiet time as a means of attaining righteousness. Or, if the person was implying that her salvation was in jeopardy if she did not do it, but that was not the context of the post. She was using quiet time as a way to interact with the Father. What might be a "burdensome rule" to one person, may be a means of trusting in, and interacting with God for the next person.

Further, what if the benefits of an exercise I partake in aren't realized for many years? I teach guitar lessons. The way for your fingers to learn muscle memory is to practice a little bit every day. For some people it takes a lot of time and effort to see any difference in their playing ability. Maybe the benefits of a spiritual practice aren't realized for many years. I don't think that discounts the benefits of the practice.

Can spiritual practices become "ritualistic obligations," or "burdensome rules"? You bet! It seems to me it is the attitude we have about a spiritual practice that can cause it to become a "ritualistic obligation," not the practice itself. So how do I know the difference? Here are a few questions I think we can ask ourselves to determine if a practice is unhealthy:

Is God leading me to do it?
Does the practice free me to love God with my heart, mind, soul and strength?
Does the practice assist me in relating to/with God?
Does the practice help me to have a "relationship with the Spirit"?
Do I feel guilt or shame if I do not participate in the practice?
Do I find myself trusting the practice more than trusting in the living God?
Do I realize that power is not found in the practice itself, but in the living God?