The process of spiritual growth is one of the most crucial aspects of being a Christian that can be hindered by some things unless one is intentional enough about to recognize and overcome them.
Spiritual growth refers to the continuous improvement of your character until you become like Jesus in your way of thinking, acting, and even speaking.
God’s intention for your Christian walk is that you will continue growing in your faith, deeper in your love, and building your relationship with Him.
However, even with the intention to grow spiritually, many believers have the experience of being spiritually stuck.
While you pray on occasion, read the Bible occasionally, and attend services, you feel there is a lack of something in your Christian life. In essence, spiritual growth does not come about by itself; rather, you need to work on it.
In many cases, however, the cause of this stagnation is not the lack of want, but rather the presence of some particular hindrances.
These are behaviors, distractions, and even spiritual states that may silently block your process and harm your walk with God.
What are some of them that can hinder spiritual growth:
1. Lack of Consistency
Lack of consistency is one of the most frequent barriers that people face while trying to nurture spiritual development. As with any other aspect of development, spiritual maturity calls for persistence and consistency.
One will hardly achieve significant progress in building a relationship with God if his spiritual activities happen occasionally.
Unfortunately, many people experience difficulties in this respect. On one day, you pray, while the following few days go by without prayer.
The same happens when you read the Bible and try to talk to God, you might do it once or twice a month and only when you need help.
However, such inconsistency is that which hinders spiritual growth, it does more harm than good. Jesus was aware of this truth when He pointed out that discipleship should involve denying oneself and carrying one’s cross daily (Luke 9:23).
Inconsistent spirituality results to unstable relationship with God. People who fail to practice their faith consistently may feel very committed to God one day, and completely indifferent another day.
Eventually, such inconsistency brings about spiritual stagnation when a person stops growing spiritually.
The answer lies in creating a consistent rhythm in searching for God. It does not necessarily mean spending hours in prayer and reading the Bible from the beginning.
Start with small steps such as allocating a definite time of the day to pray and read the Bible. It is not about time but regularity.
Regular interaction helps in building intimacy with Him. It means that even on days when we are not in the mood for praying and reading the Word of God, we do them regularly. It gradually transforms into a habit and then a genuine desire.
2. Distractions and Busy Schedules
These days, distractions abound in every aspect of life. We live busy lives because most of us want to be successful.
However, we do not recognize that such distractions consume us from spending valuable moments with God.
Although being busy is not necessarily negative, the issue arises when being busy takes over other important aspects of our life.
According to the Bible verse, Martha was “distracted with much serving” while her sister, Mary, sat and listened to Jesus.
The point here is that Martha did nothing wrong except that she did not have enough time to attend to the more important issues.
She did not understand that what mattered the most could not wait. That is why Jesus explained to her that what Mary had done was preferable (Luke 10:38-42).
Spiritual growth requires the ability to be able to decide that which is more important, and what should be put into consideration first before other things if not something else would naturally replace His position in life, which would hinder spiritual growth.
This makes it hard for one to have enough strength to pray, study the Word or meditate about their spiritual walk with God. In this case, one’s spirituality is bound to suffer a lot as well as having a distance with God.
To overcome such a hinder to spiritual growth, you should consider organizing your time so that you will be able to have enough time with God.
You need to organize time to fellowship with God just like you would with any other appointment you take seriously and can’t afford to miss.
The number of unnecessary distractions needs to be reduced to the minimum so you can have enough time to fellowship with God alone.
Spiritual growth needs such moments of solitude to take place.
3. Spiritual Dryness
As part of your Christian walk, you may experience spiritual dryness, a period when you feel spiritually distant from God, uninterested in praying, or unmoved by the teachings of God.
This can make you feel that you have lost all your fervor for spiritual matters and you no longer have a strong relationship with God.
When experiencing spiritual dryness, it might be challenging to understand why such a condition is present. In some instances, spiritual dryness arises due to lack of effort on your own side. In other cases, spiritual dryness could arise in times of struggle when life gets tough.
It is dangerous because you can become complacent during such times. Once you find yourself becoming spiritually insensitive, it is hard not to stray any further from God because you lose interest in prayers and reading the Word.
However, spiritual dryness does not have to hinder your spiritual growth. On the contrary, it could be used as an opportunity to go back to God.
This sentiment is well-captured by the verse in Psalms 63:1, which reads: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you.”
The way out of spiritual dryness lies in your ability to persevere. It involves trying to pray despite it being hard, reading the bible even though, you’re not interested, and worshiping God regardless of your emotions.
Spiritual life is never dependent on emotions but rather depends on your faith.
By persisting, you will realize that your spiritual thirst is activated once again because God is always there for those who seek Him faithfully.
4. Negative Influences
Yet another major hindrance that can affect your spiritual maturity and development is the negative influence in your life.
The kind of people you move around with, the things you read, listen, watch, etc. will significantly affect your mindset and spirituality.
This is something the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’” Despite your best intention and good heart, being continually surrounded by bad influences might corrupt your character.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that negative influences are very obvious. Negative influences are those friends of yours who undermine your spirituality or faith.
The social circle that encourages you in committing sins, the media you watch that promotes wrong values or morals, among others. They might affect your spiritual senses.
These negative influences have the capacity to gradually erode your spirituality. You will find yourself becoming less interested in spiritual issues and matters, questioning yourself about what you know is true, etc.
To overcome this and grow spiritually, you need to be deliberate with your environment.
It is important to associate yourself with those who inspire your faith and help you grow spiritually. You should seek Godly friendships and mentorships.
Secondly, you need to be careful about the things you allow into your mind. You need to read materials that edify you spiritually and not those that undermine your spiritual growth.
Spiritual growth thrives in an appropriate environment. The minute you surround yourself with positive influences, there is room for God to operate in your live.
5. Sin and Compromise
Sin is no doubt one of the gravest dangers and stumbling blocks that hinder spiritual growth.
As opposed to other kinds of obstacles that can be quite annoying and delay the progress, sin is something that can shake the very foundations of your relationship with God and spoil the very essence of your spiritual journey.
This is evident from Isaiah 59:2, which says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you.”
However, sin does not entail the end of your love affair with the Lord but hinders spiritual intimacy in many ways.
One of those ways it does hinder’s your spiritual growth is when it goes unaddressed, it can blunt the spiritual senses, making it harder for the person to hear from God.
Compromising in the spiritual field normally does not happen overnight but happens slowly. Compromise begins small, whether through rationalizing or justification of actions and thoughts, ignoring conviction, or gradually lowering spiritual standards.
Over time, actions that seemed wrong before beginning to seem more tolerable than they are.
However, the consequences of sin are grave. Sin results in guilt, shame, loss of peace, and increasing separation from God. If left unresolved, sin could confine one in a vicious circle and hinder one’s progress spiritually.
Fortunately, however, there is hope because God offers an escape route. Repentance is the key.
It involves confessing sin, renouncing it, and turning back to God with sincere hearts. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Apart from repentance, opt for an obedient life. This entails making conscious choices to act according to God’s commands despite personal challenges.
One must avoid activities that trigger temptations and seek the Holy Spirit’s empowerment.
Sin bondage hinders spiritual development. Once one adopts an obedient lifestyle and lives with a clear conscience before God, one’s spiritual experience will be livelier, and one’s spiritual growth will not be obstructed.
6. Lack of Knowledge of God’s Word
The second problem that can hinder spiritual growth is insufficient knowledge about the Word of God. Without the Bible, you cannot develop spiritually.
It is important to understand that the Bible is not merely a religious literature piece. It is a main source for the revelation of God’s will, shaping your personality, and leading you through your everyday life.
According to Hosea 4:6, “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This verse emphasizes the danger of living without knowing the truth of God.
Most Christians are still spiritually immature because of ignorance rather than their inability to love God or other reasons.
If you lack biblical knowledge, it will be challenging to distinguish between right and wrong, overcome temptations, or identify misleading teachings.
Instead of using God’s truth, you will follow your feelings, opinion, or the beliefs of others.
The result is spiritual vulnerability and getting influenced by wrong teachings. In the absence of or lack of dedication to the Word of God, spiritual growth can be hindered and unstable.
The card changes when you’re making deliberate efforts consistently, in the study of Scripture. Do not just go through the Bible as a mere passage or story, but study the bible, and meditate on the word, and make practical applications out of it.
As Joshua 1:8 puts it, “This Book of the Law must not depart from your lips; meditate on it day and night… you shall prosper and succeed in all that you do.”
Start with a well-defined schedule if necessary. It takes time to comprehend the passages, ask questions, and consider the implications in relation to your life.
As one develops understanding, one’s faith grows, one’s discernment improves, and one’s relationship with God deepens.
Spiritual growth feeds the truth. The greater one understands and practices the truths of God’s Word, the more developed, mature, and productive one’s spiritual life becomes.
7. Lack of Faith and Trust in God
Christianity starts with faith. Without faith, your spiritual growth becomes stagnant since it can be a silent enemy hindering your journey in God’s plan and purposes.
The scripture clearly states in Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” It means that faith is mandatory, and without it, Christians cannot be in alignment favor.
When one struggles with doubt, fears, and uncertainties, it impacts his relationship with God. Such a person tends to have doubts about God’s will and plans, especially when it does not make sense to him.
Doubt in God makes people worry too much, attempt to control situations, and lack the belief that God will do what he promised.
Over time, this attitude will hinder one’s spiritual growth since he will not be able to depend wholly on God for his needs.
This will lead to a hindered spiritual growth because while you acknowledge the existence of God, you will be unable to trust Him entirely.
This will cause your development to be superficial and weaken your faith in His teachings.
To solve this problem, you need to actively strengthen your faith. According to Romans 10:17, “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word about Christ.” The more often you read His Word, the more you will trust God.
Moreover, you can work on trusting God in your daily activities. For instance, you should begin by trusting Him with your decisions, committing your future to Him, and having faith in His promises even when things look bleak.
Spiritual growth thrives under complete trust in God.
Conclusion
However, spiritual maturity does not come automatically; you must be intentional, and your mind is determined to make changes that are necessary to overcome obstacles that hinder your growth spiritually.
Fortunately, there is hope for all individuals since none of these barriers are eternal and can be broken through with proper awareness, discipline, and reliance on God.
Regardless of whether an individual feels spiritually empowered or spiritually stagnant, he or she has the potential to grow spiritually and become mature.
As a result, it is important to identify the primary barrier that hinders personal spiritual growth. After identifying this issue, one should consider how it can be overcome and what steps can be taken to achieve this goal.
Even minor adjustments can make a significant difference when it comes to growing spiritually.
It is important to remember that God will never stop working in our lives. According to Philippians 1:6, God will bring any work He started in you to manifestation.
In other words, the Lord will help us grow spiritually despite the many obstacles that may seem difficult at first sight
