Happy Tuesday y’all. It’s a new day so let us rejoice and be glad in it. So, I’ve been thinking about something I have struggled with in the past which is striving. Striving not only for the approval of others, but even religiously. I was conditioned to believe that the only way God could hear me was if I was perfect and strived for His approval. Yet, in my striving, I never reached this unrealistic goal or expectation I was trying to obtain. In striving, I became more religious and did not have a true relationship with God. I was told that if I did not attend every church service, every Sunday school, every Bible study, if I did not pray for a limited amount of time each day, and if I could not memorize Scripture, then I was failing as a Christian and that God did not approve of me. It even led me to believe that backsliding was simply a lack of perfection and that I would be turned over to a reprobate mind. This was ingrained in my brain due to poor discipleship and being shaped under religion. I think about so many things we do because others projected that onto us or spoke specific words over our lives, and how quickly we will believe it, compared to what God really says about us. What the Scriptures say about us.

I am considering how that caused me to show up in my life. This idea that if I can strive in every area in my life, then I will please God. Not knowing that before I was formed, He was well pleased. Even in the messes I have made, He loves me. I pray that we would not strive but just be who God created us to be. The Pharisees and the Sadducees had so much religion and no relationship. All Word but no heart. No love. I pray that our love for God would be at the center. Knowing that He knows the condition of our heart and knowing that He knows our heart towards Him. That we would know that He knows we are sons and daughters after His own heart even in our mistakes. Even in our mishaps. We can always return to Him and get back up.

I think about the Scripture Matthew 11:28-30 AMP stating, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer 6:16] For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light.” In its full context, Jesus is speaking to those who have been weighed down by religion and all of its rituals and traditions. Jesus speaks to the weight of religion and how a relationship with Him brings forth freedom, rest, and refreshing. If your relationship with Jesus feels more binding due to religious chains He never assigned, we must reevaluate our practices. If they were ever from Him. Or was it out of tradition? Was it out of “we always do it this way”? Was it out of not being allowed to ask questions? Was it out of religious leaders that say do as I say, not as I do? We must sit with ourselves and ask these questions and allow Him to reveal to us what we may have been believing and practicing that was never from Him. It takes time to be conditioned, and it takes just as much time to uncondition ourselves and break free. May we break free from religion and take hold of the freedom that lies in a relationship with God.