Objection: Isn’t practicing yoga giving the devil a foothold? How can I practice yoga and still honor God?
Check out this post for a myth-busting discussion of yoga’s roots and my thoughts on practicing it today.
So how can we practice yoga with a pure and open heart in a way that’s honoring?
Let me give you three reasons…
1. We infuse the yoga with meaning
Yoga, as many in the modern Western world practice it, is the manipulation of body and breath in the pursuit of a deeper purpose. As a follower of Jesus, that deeper purpose is becoming aware of and surrendering my ego (or sin, or lies I’m entertaining) to make space to hear from and worship God body, heart, and soul.
God is the creator of our bodies and the giver of our breath. No other belief system can ever lay claim to either one of those things. We are made in the image and likeness of God.
God put on skin and wrestled with ego here on earth as Jesus. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, the expression of God here on earth. Our bodies, breath, awareness, stillness are all infused with the DNA of heaven and are tools of worship.
We see this principle in the Bible with the Eucharist, or communion. At its core, the Eucharist is bread and wine. Jesus infused it with meaning.
Each time I step on my yoga mat I infuse my movements with meaning and intention.
The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
- 1 Samuel 16:7b
In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul goes so far as to say that you can do all these incredible GOD things (speaking in tongues, prophesying, moving mountains with your faith, martyrdom) but if you don’t have love, it’s meaningless.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
- 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
This tells us that God cares about the condition of our hearts – our deep core motivations – more than anything we do. From the standpoint of Christian living, this means even the seemingly “good” things we do are meaningless unless they come from a heart of love. In yoga, the movements we do are meaningless (they hold no higher power or purpose) without a deeper motivation.
We do not have to fear accidentally worshipping some other god if our hearts are earnestly seeking to know and be known by Him. This is true not just in yoga but in every area of our lives (financial, relational, vocational, etc.).
When our yoga practice welcomes the word of God, we can trust its power to search, know, and transform our hearts:
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
- Hebrews 4:12
2. We walk in and with the authority of the Holy Spirit
This Spirit, the one that makes its home within us, is the very same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and intercedes on our behalf with the Father in accordance with His will for our lives.
For God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.
– 2 Timothy 1:7
That spirit of power is just that, a spirit of power.
Check out what Paul writes in another letter to the church in Corinth:
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
– 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
And the apostle John in this letter he wrote:
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
- 1 John 4:4
We do not have to fear being hoodwinked or hijacked when we are abiding in Christ and rooted in the Word of God. We are overcomers and more than conquerors because of Jesus and have authority over our environments and any spiritual forces at work in them.
While this doesn't mean we should recklessly swagger into environments waving Bibles and clutching crucifixes – wisdom, discernment, and basic human respect are very important – it does mean we walk with spiritual protection and the power to take authority over atmospheres and spiritual forces.
Finally, not only do we have authority, but we have influence.
Paul again:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
– 2 Corinthians 2:14
Wherever you go, you carry the Spirit of God, the fragrance of heaven, the light and the salt. You don’t lose that authority and influence when you step into your workplace, your grocery store, or even a yoga studio.
I’m absolutely convinced that nothing – nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable – absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
-Romans 8:38-39
3. Jesus is the redeemer of all things and call us into that ministry
Paul, take it away:
[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together...For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
- Colossians 1: 15-17, 19-20
And then we have one of my favorite stories in the Bible, ever: Peter’s radical vision about a sheet and a bunch of animals.
Peter is a devout Jew, well-versed in and a strict abider of the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law commands Jews to eat only kosher food. But then this happens:
Peter went out on the balcony to pray...he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: ‘Go to it, Peter – kill and eat.’ Peter said, ‘Oh no, Lord. I’ve never so much as tasted food that was not kosher.’ The voice came a second time: ‘If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.’ This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.
- Acts 10:9-16 (MSG)
If you read a few verses before and a few verses after, you’ll see God was up to something bigger here. God didn’t care so much about the food, but about Peter’s belief that some things were still clean and unclean. That included people as much as it included food. Jesus’s death, resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit was not just for the Jews, it was for everyone. Peter would have missed out on an opportunity to spread the Gospel and baptize believers outside the Jewish circle if he had kept operating under the old mindset:
Cornelius introduced Peter to everyone who had come. Peter addressed them, ‘You know, I’m sure that this is highly irregular. Jews just don’t do this – visit and relax with people of another race. But God has shown me that no race is better than any other...God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from – if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open. The Message he sent to the children of Israel – that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again – well, he’s doing it everywhere, among everyone.
- Acts 10:27-28, 34-36 (MSG)
Lastly, in a letter to the church in Corinth, Paul passionately argues that we are to live and preach the message of Jesus in a way that all people can understand. We stay rooted in Christ and we go out and rub shoulders and build relationships with, care for and serve, a wide range of people, regardless of their spiritual background, behaviors, or beliefs.
I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized – whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ – but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view.
- 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 MSG
When we practice yoga as followers of Jesus, we keep our bearings in Christ while also entering the world of women and men hungry for spiritual truth, meaning, freedom, and purpose. I’ve found that yogis are more than happy to have a conversation about spirituality. Being present with them and practicing alongside them has opened up many doors to talk about what yoga means to me as a Christian.
>> You can find my Open Letter to Christians Opposing Yoga that you can take and tweak to share with the people in your life who may not be so thrilled with the idea of practicing yoga as a Christian.
>> EXPERIENCE this beautiful practice of breath, movement, and prayer on a yoga mat with my Beginners Guide and Beginners Yoga Video here…
>> Or, if you’re longing for an at-home yoga sanctuary filled with yoga and meditation videos and a vibrant community of other Jesus-loving yogis, come join us in The Abbey.
