Keeping The Rules

Here is an idea that you could try...

Beat yourself into submission, follow all the rules,
duty, obligation,
behavior modification.
Submit to peer pressure - join an accountability group.
You know - Moral striving.
But that will not take you on the journey that God has for you. That is a futile journey. It leads to guilt, shame and a hidden life. Life like a bug in a bottle.

The real journey, the one that leads to life, joy, fulfillment, significance and peace comes by walking with God in honesty, vulnerability and transparency.

Galatians 2:19-21 (The Message)

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.