What hinders or stops spiritual growth is something every believer needs to understand, because there are things that will quietly work against your progress if you are not paying attention.
Some of these things creep in gradually. Others have been sitting there all along, and you just have not named them yet. So what exactly are the things that can hinder you from growing spiritually? Here are the ones to watch out for.
6 Hindrances to Spiritual Growth
1. Lack of Genuine Desire Hinders Spiritual Growth:
The first thing that can hinder you from growing spiritually is not having genuine desire. If that desire is not there, it will stop you from wanting to pursue anything that has to do with your spiritual growth. You will not pray with intention. You will not study with hunger. You will just be going through the motions, and nothing will really add up.
That is why, as you progress in your walk with God and begin to seek His face, it is not a bad thing at all to ask God to put that desire in you. Pray it out loud: Lord, help me to desire you more. Help me to want you. That prayer point is more important than it sounds, because desire is the engine behind everything else. Without it, nothing moves.
2. Distraction Hinders Spiritual Growth:
Another thing that can hinder someone from growing spiritually is distraction. If you are someone who is always easily distracted, you will not be able to do much in your walk with God.
You are here today, there tomorrow, all over the place, not sure what to focus on. That kind of scattered living will not produce spiritual growth. You have to learn to settle down, shut out the noise, and be present with God.
3. Not Prioritising God Hinders Spiritual Growth:
Another thing that will stop spiritual growth in its tracks is not setting the right priorities. The Bible says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God,” and that tells you everything you need to know. God must come first.
If you are not prioritising Him, if you are not seeing any reason why He should be first on your list, then you are not doing much of anything that pertains to Him at all. And this is where a lot of people miss it. They tell themselves, when I come back from work, I will study and pray. But you know what happens when you come back from work. You are tired. The last thing on your mind is to open your Bible or get on your knees. You eat, you rest, and that is it. Another day gone.
If God is not first, He will keep getting pushed to whatever is left over, and what is left over is usually nothing. God must always come first, and your schedule must reflect that.
4. Not Creating Time for God Hinders Spiritual Growth:
Closely tied to priorities is this: not creating time for God. If you are not deliberately carving out time for spiritual activities, your growth will be poor at best and completely stalled at worst.
Spiritual activities are the things that actually feed your growth. Praying. Studying God’s Word. Listening to sermons. Worshipping. Going for Bible study. Fellowshipping with the brethren. These are not extras you fit in when you have a free moment. They are the things that keep you growing.
And if you are not creating time for them, if you are always too busy, always pushing them aside, your spiritual life will show it. Not creating time for the things that enhance your growth will eventually stop that growth altogether.
5. Sin Hinders Spiritual Growth:
Sin is not the last thing on this list in terms of importance. If a person is constantly sinning, they will find themselves not growing. There is a saying that captures it well: sin will take you far from the Word of God, or the Word of God will take you far from sin. One of the two will win. If you are not spending time in God’s Word, if you are not spending time with God, you will find yourself drifting towards the things that defile you, things that are not meant to be part of your life.
Sin creates a decline. If you have been growing before, sin will pull that growth backwards. If you have been trying to start growing, sin can shut the whole thing down before it even gets off the ground.
And God cannot behold iniquity. He cannot dwell where sin is being entertained without conviction or repentance. So He will have to step back from that person until they get it right.
6. Disobedience to God’s Instructions Hinders Spiritual Growth:
Then there is disobedience to God’s instructions specifically. Imagine God has been telling you, “This is how I want you to do things, this is the routine I want you to build, this is the direction I want you to go”, and you keep delaying or flat out ignoring those instructions.
God desires that you grow. So when He sees something standing in the way of that growth, He will begin to call your attention to it. Stop doing this. Let go of that. Pull away from this. And the moment a person begins to disobey those promptings, to push past those instructions, they will find themselves stagnating, because God cannot take them further when they are still stuck on what He already asked them to deal with. He will keep coming back to the first thing until it is handled.
The more a person dismisses those promptings, the more they keep injuring their own growth. God is not punishing them. He is just waiting. Waiting for them to let Him do what He needs to do, so He can take them where He wants them to go.
Toppings on What Hinders or Stops Spiritual Growth
Desire, focus, right priorities, time, and a clean walk with God are not small things. They are the very things that keep your spiritual growth alive and moving. Check yourself honestly against each of these.
If you spot something that has been quietly working against your growth, do not ignore it. Deal with it. Because God is not trying to hold you back. He is trying to take you forward, and He needs you to clear the path.
