Religion Is Not God

Religion has a list full of dos and don’ts. It has a lot of requirements that it takes from people. It seems as though it will never be satisfied with what people accomplish to tame its decrees. It kind of reminds me of what Proverbs says about selfishness, it is and will never be satisfied. Do you think that religion exists for the only reason to fulfill its own desires and commands in a person? Does that really have anything to do with Christ? It doesn’t seem so. Religion seems like a counterfeit or substitute from who God really is and how he wants to live out in our own lives. The reason I think it is so hard to ‘unlearn’ religion, is because it trains us to bow down to it and relay on it when we don’t know anything else. If this is all that we have known through our entire lives, it makes it much harder to see the lies and ugliness that it really holds. Its like a spiritual mask or delusion that we follow, and we think if we do what it says and live the way it wants, God is more pleased with us and finds favor in us more than someone who doesn’t live a religious lie. In this religious reality you can tell who sits in center stage, it isn’t the relationship that you have with God, or God himself, but religion and its customs-(SELF).

What it does:

Convinces -
Controls-
Hard Working-
Manipulates-
Deceives-
Punishes-
Betrays-
Hates-

It is easy to over look these aspects of religion and how it defines us as people! It can easily lead us astray from the truth and the love that Father wants to give us freely in a relationship with him. See, the focus of religion is not on love and being in a relationship with Father, it’s all about what is listed above. The Old Testament is full of this, and proclaims that religion is God! But that isn’t so, since Christ died for all of us and set us literally and spiritually free from religion and sin, it is now easy to see that God isn’t here to: convince us, control us, work us to death, manipulate us, deceive us, punish us if we blow it, betray or condemn us, and to hate us. I know God’s truth and show us himself by his love and relationship he longs to have with us, but I think it really boils down to a HUGE misunderstanding, a lie that leads us to believe that religion is God! Maybe Father allowed this misunderstanding to take place in order to show himself to us individually and in his own way. There are so many things written in the bible that seem controversial and confusing when compared to the freedom I now see and believe, but I think Father had a reason for it to be that way, so that He himself would make himself real to us in his own way and not let the laws, and decrees and all of the above stuff, (religion) take control. He may allow it to happen in many peoples lives, but now that I have a better understanding of whom Father is, religious obligation doesn’t have a hold on my life.