Not a matter of rules.

I started thinking about rules and freedom today.  Lately, I've been feeling a freedom with and in the Lord that I'm not sure I've ever known before.  It feels like the Lord is showing me things for the first time...or it is the first time that they are actually making sense.  Thinking about freedom had me ponder bondage of rules.  And how, when I was placed under a bunch of rules, I loathed them and wanted to fight against them.  

As I'm thinking through these things today, I happened to read Romans 14 and was struck by verse 17:

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Let's go back to when I first met Jesus.  I was in high school and those years were filled with amazing mentors and learning about God and what it meant to be a believer.  Then I went to college; as I look back on my college years in regard to the Lord, the thing that stands out to me most is RULES.

1. I, by nature, like rules.  (Even when I choose to break them.)
2. The majority of Christians I was around in college loved rules.

This meant that often times God felt like a rule book.  You are good and holy if you abide by our rules...you are the best kind of Christian if you attend church, attend our weekly meeting, our discipled by our people, disciple our people yourself, spend time with and share the gospel with non-believers, study the Bible for an hour a day, spend as much time in prayer as you can, hang out with us over Christmas break and the summers, etc.  Other people knew the knew the Lord, but the people abiding by these rules...they were ones that really, REALLY knew the Lord and loved God.

Before I continue, I'd like to say a few things:

1. This may only be my perception of college and the ministry I was involved with.  I don't think that's (fully) the case, but it is a possibility.
2. The issue isn't whether or not these things are good because all of those things are good.  

BUT those things are food and drink.  They are rules.  And God cares about much more than the rules...He cares about righteousness, peace, and joy...in the Holy Spirit.

For me, post college time has been about sorting through the rules -- which ones are legit and which ones cause more harm in me than good because I am more wrapped up in the rule than the glorifying the Lord?  This past year or so, I've met the Holy Spirit and the thing I've most learned from Him is that there are no rules.  He does anything but fit into a box.  He blows me away with His ways and abilities!

When we pursue righteousness, peace, and joy.  And when we pursue those things through the Holy Spirit, we get to know the Lord on such a deep and intimate level.  Personally, I find when I'm seeking the Lord, rather than obeying rules, I am much more likely to serve others, to tell others about Jesus, to pray for people, to praise the Lord, etc.  There is a joy that can only come from God, a true peace that surpasses all understanding, and before you even have time to think about it, you are more righteous than you once were.  

It shouldn't surprise me, but it still does: that the Lord already has all of this figured out!  And His ways are always best!