- Religion is a Lifestyle
- Seek Growth Over Perfection
- Set Up Regular Worship Habits
- Surround Yourself with Religious Reminders
- Keep Going When It Gets Rough
- Want to Read More on Seeking Christ?
Religion is constantly debated and challenged. Opinions on religion, whether it’s valuable or not, whether it’s delusional or not, whether it’s true or not, vary in the extreme. Yet a common question today is simply, does religion work? Does it help people and change their lives? Is religion is just a set of rose-colored lenses to see the world through? Or is it something more substantial?
Religion is a Lifestyle
Based on my own experiences, I believe that religion does work, or at least it can. The thing with religion is that you have to put into it what you want out of it. So, for religion to really work for you, religion needs to be your lifestyle. You won’t believe the payoff that comes from dedicating yourself to your religion.
And let’s be clear here: when we dedicate ourselves to Christian religion, we are dedicating ourselves to Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. The lifestyle of religion is a life in which you dedicate yourself to building your relationship with God in everything you do.
If you’re wondering if religion really can make a difference in your life, you’re not alone. When I was younger, I wondered if the effort of religion was worth it, even growing up in a religious home. I questioned it a lot, but with time and experiences with religion, I found that I was better and happier when I leaned fully into my religion than I was when religion took a backseat in my life.
Later, I served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Philippines. One day while visiting a man my companion and I had met a few times, he asked me almost the exact question that I’ve titled this article: does religion really work?
We sat in his living room, the heat and humidity pressing on us in that inescapable way they always did in the Philippines. The man was large, one of the tallest I’d met in the Philippines, and in our conversation, proved to be sincerely curious about why I and my mission companion chose to live the religion we did. After all, we were young women who could have been doing a number of other things in our lives. Why were we giving our time to our religion like this? And why was I, an American, living in the Philippines to do so?
I think he sensed that our religion held an important place in our lives. But that seemed to be the exact thing that bewildered him.
When he asked me if religion works, it actually drew me up short. Despite my own questions growing up, I had never really put the answer to this question into words. At some point, my experiences just seemed to confirm the answer. But this man hadn’t had those experiences in his life, and he wanted the answer right then. Does religion work?
In that moment, facing that man who was genuinely asking if what I was offering him was worth spending any time on, I had to pause. Miraculously, the answer came, and it’s the same answer I gave you right at the start of this post.
Religion does work, and it works because it’s intended to be a lifestyle. It’s not intended to be a casual thing you visit once in awhile.
Religion, when it is your lifestyle, actually changes you into someone who lives what they believe rather than someone who just says they believe something and isn’t really sure.
So how do you make religion your lifestyle? Let’s take a look at what James had to say.
“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone… For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
James 2:17, 26 (King James Version)
As James says, faith and action are key. So here are just a couple of my thoughts on things we can all be doing to exercise faith and action.
Seek Growth Over Perfection
I think sometimes religion is intimidating to people because they think they need to be perfect or saint-like before they are part of the religion, and when they look in the mirror, they just aren’t those things. This is certainly a perspective I have heard among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other churches as well.
In religion, we do seek obedience to the laws of God, and we seek to avoid sin. Seeking these things can take a turn toward perfectionism, but perfectionism really isn’t the goal right now. Christ taught that He would make us perfect; we don’t make ourselves perfect. So avoiding sin and seeking obedience is actually more about progress than perfection. Obedience draws us closer to God and builds our relationship with Him, and it’s that relationship we have with Christ that will someday, after this life, bring us to perfection.
If we are too caught up in the idea of being perfect now, we block ourselves from God because we are trying to do the task that Christ is intended to do. We cannot make ourselves perfect. We will never make ourselves perfect. I’m not trying to discourage you when I say that. Instead, I’m encouraging you to turn to Christ.
At its best, religion is actually for people just like you and me, who know we aren’t perfect, but who want to be better. We are a work in progress, and it’s something we have to recognize and accept for religion to be a lifestyle.
Set Up Regular Worship Habits
If we want to have a religious lifestyle, there are some practical things we can do to build our relationship with God and shape our lifestyle. For me and others of my faith, this can look like:
- Studying scriptures daily
- Praying – probably several times a day, anytime I have a reason to pray
- Attending church services weekly
- Regularly visiting other places of worship, such as temples or institute classes
- Caring about other people and going out of your way to help them
- Spending time with family and discussing religion with them
- Learning from religious leaders
- Obeying the commandments to the best of my ability
- Repenting often
Your religious practices may look different, and that’s fine! But I’m sure there are things like this in every religion – little things that can be worked into daily or regular routines and keep your mind on your faith.
The great thing about these habits is that they aren’t all religion specific. Family time and caring about people don’t need a religion to be habits. However, when making religion your lifestyle, these habits can be pretty important.
If you can make progress on even one religious habit, you are growing closer to God, and He will recognize and accept your effort. It will take work, it may be challenging, but if we are seeking to grow closer to God, we can’t expect that everything will be easy. Precious things are worth the effort they require.
Surround Yourself with Religious Reminders
It isn’t necessary to have religious images around you, but it can be helpful to have reminders of your religion in a lot of places in your life. Personally, as a Christian, I like to have at least one picture of Jesus Christ in my bedroom at all times, not to mention scattered throughout my home. I also like to make the lock screen on my phone a picture of Jesus. These pictures help me to remember Him and His love and sacrifice for me.
During Christmas, I like to have several nativities set up as part of the decorations. With all the fun parts of Christmas around, I find that the nativity scenes remind me why I really celebrate Christmas. Christ is central to the holiday, so I try to make Him central to my celebration of it.
While living in the Philippines, I saw many homes filled with figures of saints. For those people, having those figures in their homes helped them to show their devotion to the Catholic church and remember their beliefs.
Outside of pictures or sculptures, other religious reminders could be quotes, scriptures, jewelry, music, or clothing. There are all sorts of religious reminders, and incorporating these into our lives can help establish religion as our lifestyle.
Keep Going When It Gets Rough
As with any goal, making religion your lifestyle will be tiring at times. Sometimes, you flat-out won’t want to keep going.
Maybe you have to make more changes than you thought. Maybe your family or friends are challenging your decision. Maybe you think that you aren’t good enough or strong enough.
Keep going anyway.
Religion, when it is working, is a long-term commitment. But it is, in every way, worth it.
It takes a lot of work. Habits don’t form overnight, and there are constant challenges that require you to choose your religion over and over again. But at the end of it, your faith in your religion comes out stronger than anything.
These are steps I’ve been working on for a while now. Complete transparency here, I am still working on these things. In fact, while I’ve been writing this, a couple of things have been hovering at the back of my mind, reminding me that I’m not where I want to be on some of these practices.
But I have hit points in my life where I was routinely doing many of these things. And I have seen people who have taken steps like these in stride and become powerful in their beliefs. Remember, if you’ve fallen out of your habits, you can always try again. There’s no maximum limit when it comes to second chances with Christ.
It pays off. And making religion your lifestyle does make religion work. I’ve seen it in others and myself. It’s a process, a refining one, and every moment is worth the work.
Want to Read More on Seeking Christ?
10 Essential Things to Remember About Jesus Christ
Teagan’s Testimony of God’s Love
5 Ways to Start Exercising Faith
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