Yoga is famous for the various postures that practitioners explore during a practice. The postures are intended to benefit a person physically, but they are also meant to help facilitate connecting to God, becoming present in the moment, meditation, connection to breath, syncing body and mind, and even prayer.
The question many Christians ask is whether or not it’s ok to practice these postures. What is amazing about many of the yoga postures, or at least the overall bodily orientation, is that many of these postures are actually found in the Bible! While they may not have looked exactly the same (although some certainly were), the important connection between placing one’s body in a certain posture in order to help facilitate connection with God and self, and deeper transformation, is an idea found throughout Scripture. God created us to be physical beings and including our entire bodies in our prayer can be a huge blessing. The physical, external postures help represent and even bring forth thoughts, feelings, and prayers internally.
I’d like to explore 10 such postures (these aren’t necessarily the only 10), how they were used in the Bible, and what they can offer you as you move, breathe, meditate, and pray in the presence of God. Specifically, we are going to explore standing, spreading arms, kneeling, sitting, bowing, laying down, looking up, dancing, wrestling (yes this is in the Bible), and meditation.
Standing
Mark 11:25 – “And when you stand praying…”
Standing reminds me that we are invited in Hebrews 4:16 to “approach the throne of grace with confidence.” We have many prayer postures that are related to humility and obedience, but we are also invited to stand before God’s throne of grace. We do so not because of anything we have done but because of what God has done for us. We stand in God’s presence as beloved children and heirs with Jesus. We can ask God anything.
While standing, there are different things we can do with the rest of our bodies. We can raise our arms to heaven, place our hands in a prayer posture in front of our chest, keep our arms to the side, or even place our feet apart to enter into more dynamic standing postures.
Standing Yoga postures include mountain, the Warrior series, forward fold, etc.
Extending Arms
Exodus 9:29 – “Moses replied, ‘When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.’”
When we extend our arms or spread them apart, we are reaching to God. We are reaching to God because we know we cannot do it on our own. It’s only by the gifts of God such as mercy and grace that we can exist in this world and glorify God in any way. Extending our arms to God reminds us that everything we have, we have received from God. We are invited to ask God for what we need and the beauty is Jesus tells us God desires to give us good things and even knows what we need before we ask!
Spreading our hands as Moses does in the passage above also signals that we bring nothing to the table. Our hands our open to receive. It also reminds us that there may be something things we have held onto too tightly or that may be getting in the way and we need to gently release them so our hands can be open to receive from God.
Extending Arms Yoga postures include Tree, revolved postures with arms extended, Childs pose, etc.
Kneeling
1 Kings 18:42 – “So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.”
This is a posture of humility. We are unworthy in ourselves to come before God. We are invited to come with confidence but we must never believe we have earned such an invitation. Kneeling before God reminds us to stay humble, that judgment is not our call, and that we survive every day simply on the mercy and grace of God.
Kneeling Yoga postures include Hero, Child’s pose, bound angle forward fold, etc.
Sitting
2 Samuel 7:18 – “Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said:
‘Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?’”
The first yoga posture was a seated one. The other postures all came later in the history of yoga. Sitting invites us into the present moment to connect with God, ourselves, the present moment, and even others. When we sit, we can find our breath (which is a gift from God) and really meditate on God’s Word. We can pray and listen for God’s voice. Sitting, while it may not be as dynamic as other postures in terms of stretching, is one of the most important postures we can engage.
Sitting Postures include Simple Seated, Bound Angle, Lotus, etc… Simply sit!
Bowing
Genesis 24:26-27 – “Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, saying, ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham…’”
Bowing is very much like kneeling and invites humility. We bow before God’s amazing throne as God’s servants. We are reminded that we come to God fully dependent on God’s goodness, unworthy to look up to God. Even though we are invited before God, we must remember that we are in the presence of pure holiness.
Bowing Postures include Humble Warrior, Forward Fold, etc…
Prostrate (laying down)
1 Samuel 3:3-4 – “The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was.Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’”
Job 1:20–21 – “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship”
When we lay down with our face on the floor, we can engage any number of emotions or prayers. It can signal and invite listening, it can be in response to pain or suffering we are experiencing, it can be an act of repentance, and it can be a posture of rest. We lie down in front of God and pour out what we are feeling and experiencing.
Laying down postures include Child’s Pose, Puppy Pose, and simply lying prostrate with our face to the floor.
Looking Up
Psalm 121:1–2 – “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
John 17:1 – “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed”
We are not worthy to look to God but God invites us to look up in praise. We recognize that God is higher than we are and God’s ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). This is a posture where we are invited to worship and praise. We are invited to remember that God is our provider, sustainer, and redeemer.
Looking Up Postures include Mountain or really any posture with eyes lifted up.
Dancing (Free Movement)
Psalm 149:3 – “Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.”
2 Samuel 6:14 – “Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might…”
You may not think of yoga as dancing, but when people danced in the Bible, it was about moving all of their body to praise and worship God. In yoga, all of the postures invite movement and intentionality. Yoga postures and flows are like a dance where we include our entire body, mind, and spirit in the worship of God. It’s joyful and freeing!
Wrestling
Genesis 32:24, 26 – “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak…Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”
Some may see this as a stretch, and obviously we don’t know what Jacob’s wrestling looked like, but when Jacob wrestles with a divine being, and some believe he was wrestling with God, he was using movement to work something out with God. He wasn’t just talking to God but was physically engaging God, even refusing to let go until God blessed him! Sometimes we need to get our entire body active in a prayer. It worked for Jacob. Whatever the posture, movement can become part of us working through an issue with God, seeking an answer, or looking for blessing.
We try different postures and positions to open ourselves to see things from a different way or hear God anew. We move and pray until God blesses us!
Meditation in Various Postures
Genesis 24:63 – “He went out to the field one evening to meditate.”
It is significant that Isaac didn’t have a Bible or Scripture. He was connecting with God by becoming present, listening, thinking, and praying.
While not a specific physical posture, meditation is a central component of practicing yoga. When we think of meditation, the first image that usually comes to mind is a person sitting with their eyes closed. This is so central to yoga that it is actually the first practice we find when exploring the history of yoga! Before all of the postures we know today such as Warrior and Crow, and the postures discussed above, sitting for meditation was the first, and only, posture in yoga.
It turns out that meditation, whether standing or sitting, is extremely old in the Biblical tradition as well. All of the movements in a Christian Yoga class is meant to help facilitate prayer and meditation with body, mind, and spirit. It’s all about making space to connect with God, ourselves, the present moment, and even others!
What is your favorite yoga posture? What does it invite you to? What have you learned from it? What has God spoken or revealed to you in that posture?
Continue the series with part 4 here: Christian Yoga? Part 4 – The Evolving History of Yoga
You can also find part 2 here: Christian Yoga? Part 2 – Redemption & Reconciliation
You can find part 1 here: Christian Yoga? Part 1 – Yoga Means Yoke or Union
I cant begin to tell you what the practice of yoga has done for me physically and emotionally..I had severe hip pain and by stretching i haven’t had any pain for years. Also struggle with anxiety and yoga has been a tremendous help in getting me into my body and out of my head. the book Christian Yoga by Dechanet explains the ways in which yoga can become a spirtual practice of communion with our Lord. These people who fear yoga have never taken the time to practice it and see how it can actually prepare our body, soul, and mind for a deep prayer with Christ…so sad that they aren’t open to a truly beautiful practice that has quite nearly changed my life and deepened my faith.
Joy a faithful yogi in Christ
It is rebellion to say, “I do yoga, but I pray to Jesus.” God tells us how to worship Him and when we make up our own way to worship God or adopt the ways of pagan worship in the name of Jesus, this is taking the Lord’s name in vain, blaspheming God and He hates it (Deut 12:29-31). God tells us clearly in His word how we are to worship Him – we are to worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), not by doing yoga, not by any other means, but through faith in Jesus Christ, in spirit and in truth. We become very spiritually sensitive when we have the Holy Spirit, and we will be convicted and turned from error when we are made aware. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:” (Ephesians 5:8) We are not to mix darkness and light – we are to have no fellowship with darkness, but to expose the unfruitful works of darkness. If you are lukewarm or serving two masters, this displeases God. These two faiths are in opposition to one another. “For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” (2 Peter 2:19). Do not yoke with other gods, be yoked only to Christ Jesus. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
I pray that God reveals to you His truth and that you notice how you have misinterpreted the True Word of God for your own understanding. By doing so, you have broken the first commandment: Thou shalt have NO other gods before me.
Be Bless
Warnings about Yoga
Yoga is marketed in the guise of an innocent, healthful technique, but it is far from it. H.Rieker warns: “Yoga is not a trifling jest if we consider that any misunderstanding in the practice of yoga can mean death or insanity,” and that if the breath is “prematurely exhausted, there is immediate danger of death for the yogi” (Rieker, The Yoga of Light (Los Angeles: Dawn House) 1974, p. 135). Blackouts, strange trance states, or insanity are listed from even “the slightest mistake…” of practicing yoga. Swami Prabhavananda’s Yoga and Mysticism lists brain injury, incurable disease, and insanity as potential hazards of wrong yoga practice.
If one is experiencing stress and needs to relax, there are many ways to do this such as going for a walk, a picture show, playing sports, going out for dinner, taking a vacation than pursuing yoga. To strengthen one’s body, you can lift weights, run, swim etc… rather than doing yoga postures.
In Psychic Forces and Occult Shock Wilson and Weldon state, “Yoga is really pure occultism, as any number of yoga and occult texts prove (R.S Mishra’s Yoga Sutras and Fundamentals of Yoga , J. Brennan’s Astral Doorways and H. Chaudhuri’s Philosophy of Meditation are footnoted). Occult abilities are very common from yoga practice, and the numerous dangers of occultism are evident from many studies (K. Koch’s Christian Counseling and Occultism is footnoted). The yoga scholar and Sanskrit authority, Mishra, states: ‘In conclusion, it may be said that behind every psychic investigation, behind mysticism, occultism, etc., knowingly or unknowingly, the yoga system is present. (Mishra, op.cit.)’” Kurt Koch in his various excellent books correlates delving with the occult with subsequent experiences of anxiety and depression sometimes resulting in suicide.
What the Bible Says
The Bible informs us that God created Adam of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). Man is a created, separate being. Man can have a relationship with the Living God by accepting His Son, God’s physical incarnation, Jesus Christ. The Bible does not teach that through yoga man can attain progressive higher levels of consciousness so that man will realize he is one with God and merge with Brahman as Hinduism teaches or that man’s personality can be extinguished as a flame is extinguished as Buddhism teaches. The Bible does not mention or recognize yoga or any system where man can become one with God.
God is so far above man that man cannot work his way up to God through his own actions. Because of the original sin of Adam and Eve man is fatally flawed. He is born in sin. But God so loved man that he provided a plan of redemption. God Himself became man (John 1:14) to provide the perfect sacrifice to atone for man’s sin. The perfect sacrifice had to be God Himself as only God is without sin. Accepting God’s provision for sin, his Son, gives man an eternal life in God’s presence. The earthly body is shed and replaced with an eternal body at death. Man does not become nor does he merge with God. Salvation is a free gift given by grace, and not something which has to be worked for.
Both Hinduism and Buddhism believe in reincarnation, the transmigration of souls from one body to the next over time. One reincarnates to overcome one’s karma or one’s attachment to the material world and the recurring patterns which bind one to the material world. Only by elevating one’s consciousness through yoga and piercing the “veil of illusion,” which is the material world, can one transcend and merge with Brahman or snuff out one’s flame and attain Nirvana.
The Bible teaches that man lives once and then comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). For those who have accepted Christ there is no judgment as the decision has been made to spend eternity with the source of all goodness, joy, and purity, the personal God of the Universe. For those who never knew Christ God will judge with absolute fairness, but for those who have rejected Christ eternity will be spent in a horrible place where God does not exist, a place to which Jesus referred to more than anyone else in the Bible, a place of eternal agony … hell (Mark 9:48).
Yoga is not a panacea, it is a system where man tries to work his way to God. Yoga is not necessary and all of man’s works are nothing but dirty rags before the righteousness of God. Why spend one’s life in bondage chasing a mirage, spending countless hours doing yoga exercises and meditating, hoping to pull oneself off samsara, the wheel of reincarnation. Man can never become God. Because of the sin of Adam man dies. What mortal man can compare to even an angel of God? Daniel saw the angel Gabriel and here is his awesome description: