Why I am not Religious?

Society tell us today that to be a follower of God we need a religion, but didn't Jesus die on the cross for us so we don't have to be religious? When people ask me if I am religious, I reply, "No!" You might be confused now as I have stated that I am christian. The Merriam Webster Dictionary says that religion is an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods. Why would we be religious if we believe that God sent his only Son to die on the cross for us? With Jesus, we don't need rules, ceremonies, and etc for eternal life. God tells us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10. We are saved by our faith because Jesus died on the cross for our sins. 

I consider Judaism, Buddhism, Muslim, and Hindi Gods to be religions because you must follow a strict set of rules. God set us free from the rules of so many religions when he sent Jesus. God came through Jesus to see the difficulties that we face here on Earth. God loved us so much that he wanted to feel the suffering that we face each day on Earth due to all the temptations from the Devil. 

Being religious means that you do only what is obligated of you. Jesus told us that we must give up everything to follow him. Matthew 16:24; "Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." God never said it was going to be easy to follow him, but he promised us eternal life if we did. Often, I hear from christian that they will not associate with others who are not christian. But God doesn't hate the sinner, he hates the sin. We all have our own sins so we must not judge others for their's. God tells us to make disciples so we must spread the word to all those who will listen. 

In my opinion, being a christian means having a relationship with God. As we all know that relationships have their ups and downs just like our relationship with God. We often struggle with our relationship with God, but God is always there for us as he loves us even with our sins. God sees us past our sins as we are his work of art. The devil can only focus on our sins to destroy our relationship with God. We must learn to stay strong with the Lord even when we are struggling because God doesn't make life easy, but he promises to always be with us.