When you hear the word “religion,” what comes to mind? Church buildings? Rules? Hypocrisy?
The other day, I was talking to a guy who claimed he was “not religious.” I asked him why he thought he was not religious, and he said, “because I don’t belong to an organized religion.” I thought about his answer and asked God to show me in His Word how to help folks understand their innate need to worship, and thus, comprehend they are, in fact, “religious.” This devotional and the earlier podcast were the result.
Most people think of religion as a belief system or tradition, but the Bible points to something much deeper. “Religion” is whatever we center our lives around — whatever rules our thoughts, shapes our priorities, and captures our devotion. By that definition, everyone is religious.
We may not all go to an organized church, but we all worship something. Whatever we think about most, pursue hardest, or fear losing most—that’s what sits on the throne of our hearts. Even the world’s most famous skeptics and atheists have admitted that human beings are incapable of living without worshiping something. For example, David Foster Wallace, a celebrated novelist who said he was “not religious,” made this profound observation in a 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College:
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships.
The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship…
is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
Worship money and things—if they are where you tap real meaning in life—then you will never have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure—you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.
Worship power—you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb your own fear.
Worship intellect—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.
Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful—it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.”
Wallace wasn’t preaching a sermon—he was describing reality. The human soul was made to worship. And when God isn’t our center, something else always takes His place. The Bible is clear:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21
The irony is that many who deny God have still confessed humanity’s unrelenting need to worship. Here are some examples:
Christopher Hitchens, one of the world’s most famous atheists, wrote that “everybody has a religion—it is the worship of the self.” He saw clearly that even secular people make idols out of ego and ideology.
Aldous Huxley admitted, “Man’s most pressing need is to worship something.”
Jean-Paul Sartre, the existentialist philosopher, at the end of his life, confessed, “That God does not exist, I cannot deny. That my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget.”
Carl Jung, the psychologist, described modern emptiness this way: “The lack of meaning in life is a soul-sickness… and only the experience of the sacred can cure it.”
These men didn’t believe the Gospel—but they testified to its truth: Every human being is a worshiper, thus every person is religious. And if we don’t worship God, we inevitably worship something else—success, pleasure, intellect, reputation, or control. Even the Israelites fell into false worship—all the while pretending they were being faithful to Him. In Isaiah 58, Israel prayed, fasted, and performed religious rituals, but their hearts were far from God. God said:
“Indeed you fast for strife and debate… You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high.” Isaiah 58:4
They were much like us because they wanted God’s favor but not His authority. They performed acts of religion while living selfishly and unjustly. True worship isn’t about doing for God—it’s about being with God. It’s about obedience that flows from love.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
When we truly love God, His presence and His ways become our greatest delight—not a duty. When we make God our center, life stops feeling like a scorched desert and begins to blossom.
Isaiah records the Lord’s promise:
“The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:11
God promises that those who truly delight in Him will experience:
- Light and clarity: “Then your light shall break forth like the morning.”
- Healing and renewal: “Your healing shall spring forth speedily.”
- Protection: “The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.”
- Answered prayer: “You shall call, and the Lord will answer.”
- Guidance: “The Lord will guide you continually.”
- Satisfaction in dry seasons: “He will satisfy your soul in drought.”
- Strength: “He will strengthen your bones.”
- Overflowing refreshment: “You shall be like a spring whose waters do not fail.”
- Purpose and legacy: “You shall raise up the foundations of many generations.”
- Joy and elevation: “I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth.”
My friend, every person reading this devotional is religious. The big question is, what is your religion giving you? Is it anywhere close to the list we just read? Ah, this is why Jesus died. To give us salvation, and His mind, His peace, His love. When Jesus is the center of our worship, we are living our best life—and are continually producing the fruit of His Spirit.
Challenge
Everyone worships something. The question isn’t IF you worship—but WHO or WHAT you worship. To determine your religion, answer these questions:
- What consumes most of my thoughts and energy?
- What do I talk about most?
- What do I fear losing most?
- Who defines my worth?
Whatever that is—that’s your real religion. If it’s not God, it will eventually drain you. But if it is God, your soul will be “like a watered garden, whose waters do not fail.”
Prayer
Father, open my eyes and reveal what false gods are taking Your place in my heart. Help me to examine my sources of anxiety and recognize that if they are controlling my thoughts and actions, then I have dethroned You. Remove every false god—success, comfort, image, or worry—and fill me with Your presence. Make my soul a watered garden, refreshed and fruitful, guided daily by Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sources & Notes: David Foster Wallace, “This Is Water” — Kenyon College Commencement Address, May 21, 2005; published by The Wall Street Journal and Little, Brown and Company, 2009.Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian (Basic Books, 2001); God Is Not Great (Twelve, 2007). Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means (Chatto & Windus, 1937). Jean-Paul Sartre, Words (Les Mots, 1964); quoted in Time Magazine, “Sartre: The Philosopher as Existentialist,” Oct. 11, 1966. Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (Routledge, 1933).
