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During Lent, Christians ought to suppose of fasting and praying as a solution to honor God, not as legalistic conduct, a Christian author informed Fox News Digital.
In childhood, it is widespread to suppose of God as a “cosmic Santa Claus,” Laura Gallier informed Fox News Digital in an emailed message. Gallier is a Houston-based author and host of the podcast “Fearless and Free: Spirit, Soul, Body.”
God, stated Gallier, was akin to “a stranger I could never know,” who noticed how she behaved, “keeping an impeccable record of how naughty or nicely.”
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While Gallier stated she outgrew the equating of God to Santa Claus, her “assumptions about God lasted long into adulthood.”
She informed Fox News Digital, “Suffice it to say, it’s intuitive to human nature to strive to earn divine approval through white-knuckle efforts at being good. When we inevitably fail, the sense of shame makes us grateful God keeps an invisible, sanitary distance from us.”
During the season of Lent, author Laura Gallier stated God is not like a “cosmic Santa Claus” who retains tabs on those that are naughty or good. (iStock; AveryGFilms.com and 4the1studio.com)
It is regular, stated Gallier, to “try to compensate for our moral mishaps by doing noble things.”
Yet ideas of “noble things” ought to not be the motivation why folks quick throughout Lent, she stated.
Lent, she stated, is “a seasonal tradition of sacrificing something savory for 40 days to show God we’re not entirely bad.”
It might be tempting, she stated, to really feel a sense of smugness when others fail at their Lenten fasts — and to hold this perspective of superiority all year long.
“Jesus debunked the delusion that we can earn right-standing with God the Father through human effort,” stated Gallier. Rather, she stated, “God wants to know us and be known by us. He is not far from us and bids us through Christ to come close to Him.” (iStock)
“As for the rest of the year, surely God sees how pure our intentions are — most of the time — and that’s bound to count for something,” she stated. “Right?”
This, nonetheless, is not biblical.
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“If it’s the God of all Creation we seek to please, a disciplined performance will never suffice,” she stated. “Jesus debunked the delusion that we can earn right-standing with God the Father through human effort.”
If it have been doable to realize a holy life by good deeds and conduct, Jesus would have had no cause to die for the sins of humanity, stated Gallier.
Christ’s demise on the cross “forever shredded” the “naughty-nice ledge of legalism.” (iStock)
“Why bear our shame if our good deeds can compensate?”
The fact is, stated Gallier, “God wants to know us and be known by us. He is not far from us and bids us through Christ to come close to Him, into His very presence.”
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She continued, “As for that dreaded naughty-nice ledger of legalism we’ve carried in our conscious our whole lives, it’s forever shredded at the cross.”
Instead of viewing our Lenten practices as legalistic conduct, they need to be seen as methods to honor and worship God.
“God is a loving, forgiving God.”
“Our only reasonable motive for moral living and doing good things, including fasting during Lent, is to honor and draw near to God in love,” she stated.
This love, and these actions, are performed “in responsiveness to His pursuit of a deeper, all-satisfying relationship with us,” stated Gallier.
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As she additionally says on her web site, (lauragallier.com), “God is a loving, forgiving God, and His biblical standards are for my protection — and yours.”
For extra Lifestyle articles, go to www.foxnews.com/life-style.
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