Galatians 4

People like to have boundaries. We like to know the rules of the game that we are playing. Sometimes we like to break the rules and sometimes we like to play by the rules, but we always want to know where the lines are. God understands that, and there are rules by which we play. That's why we have been forgiven, but we still sin. You can't have sin without also having rules. The issue is when we trade a relationship with God for an opportunity to worship the rules; when the rules become more important than God.

We do the same with our children. We want to have a relationship with them, but we also have to maintain order in our homes. We make rules, and the kids break them or bend them or ignore them or follow them (some more often than others). How do we react when they break the rules, though? Of course we discipline them and we expect some sort of confession from them (just like our Father in heaven expects of us), but do we kick them out of our house? Never. At least not any parents that I know. Why not?

Because following the rules is secondary to building a relationship with your kids. The rules help guide your kids in that relationship and they help mold them into adults, but we aren't going to stop working on a relationship with our kids just because they broke a rule. God is the same way. He's put rules in place to help guide us in a relationship with Him. He's going to discipline us when we get outside of those rules, but He's not going to stop pursuing a relationship with us. He's not going to kick us out of the inheritance just because we broke a rule.

We are not slaves to the rules that God made (the Law) or to the rules that we make for ourselves. We don't have to worry about anything other than what our relationship with God looks like and how to keep it on track. If you are focused on anything else, then you need to recheck your priorities.