Hindrances to Spiritual Maturity...

Chapter Fifty-three:


The Bible teaches us that the process of growing spiritually takes a lifetime.  Philippians 3:12 says, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."  That being said, we are to be growing on a daily basis in our walk with God. 

God wants us to move forward and attain more.  He does not want us to be mediocre.  I recently learned that the word "mediocre" comes from two Latin words, and literally means "halfway to the peak".  God wants us to progress in our walk with Him and not settle for a lukewarm walk. We honor Him by going on to full maturity and reaching the peak.  Unfortunately, there are some who feel disheartened because they are not reaching the spiritual maturity that they would like. 

Do you ever feel you are not growing in your walk with the Lord as you would like?  Do you feel there is something holding you back, getting in the way of your becoming more mature?  It is quite possible that there are some unknown things you are doing, or attitudes/beliefs that you have, that could be the culprit in stopping you from progressing towards the spiritual maturity that you desire. I would like to present several reasons that could be the source. 

You have allowed things to get in the way.  Scripture warns us in Mark 4:18-19,   "Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."  The cares of this life can very easily become the focus of our lives.  In fact, it is often necessary for us to determine that we will not allow things or duties or obligations or relationships to  get in the way as they will absorb as much time in the day as we allow.  Oswald Chambers said, "What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things. It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes but I do not hear Him.” 

You have given up on growing any further. Your attitude may be that you do not need to grow any further and are just fine where you are.  You have settled for how your life is and continue to live in this world without the desire to grow any further. Or maybe you are under the presumption that you are already spiritual enough, which is pride. We can think we know enough about God, and we no longer thirst to draw closer to Him and grow in our relationship with Him. What we fail to remember is that the infinite God we serve can never be fully understood or comprehended by such finite beings as we.

You have just decided to settle for less.  In your heart you know that God often uses difficulties and trials to grow us and you try to avoid any degree of difficulty, and the result is that you do not progress.  Scripture plainly tells us in the Book of James, Chapter One that as believers we will have trials but that the end result of them is to produce maturity within us.  If you have predetermined that you will not deal with any difficulties and want your life to be easy and trouble free, then you hinder God's ability to work in you.  I, personally, know of several who became believers and once difficulties started in their lives they decided their old way of living was much easier and returned to living sinful, Godless lives.

 

You have already drawn the line as to how far you will go in your walk with God and are paying the price by staying an immature believer. You have to be willing to follow God, regardless of the difficult times you have to endure. When difficulties arise in our lives, we start to question God and maybe even get angry with Him.  We try to bargain with God so that we can have the assurance of heaven but without any trouble here on earth.  In Luke 9:23 Jesus plainly warns us that “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."         John 12:26 tells us, "Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

You want to know upfront, before you do something, what the cost will be.  What it will cost you financially, how much time it will take out of your pre-planned life, how it will affect your relationships, if it will be inconvenient. You want to determine if you will do such and such a thing, rather than doing it because you know He wants you to.  We are often more than willing to do something for God if it is fun and enjoyable.  We want to know all the consequences so we can decide if we are going to obey.

 You are holding on to something that you are unwilling to surrender.  You have willingly given up those things that are obviously sinful things, bad things, those things that are easily recognizable as being good to give up.  But Christ requires more.  He requires that we be willing to surrender the good things in our lives, also. Paul said in Philippians 3:7, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss." He was referring to things that we would consider okay, they were not immoral, they were not bad things. He could have easily said that there was nothing wrong in holding on to them because they were good things.  But what he realized, and many of us do not, is that humans can make idols out of anything, even things that are considered good.  We easily surrender evil things, but we tend to hold on to good things and we can begin to worship them. 

For instance, it is not a bad thing to own a home or own a vehicle or have a desire for something, but if we are not willing to surrender it to God, we can easily idolize it and cling to it tenaciously.  Surrender is much more than having the attitude that you can hang on to something as long as you tell yourself you are willing to let it go.  True surrender is a gut-wrenching, sweat producing night or time of wrestling with self.  A.W. Tozer said, "Whatever we refuse to surrender and count but loss, we will ultimately worship.  It may be something good, but it gets between you and God--whether it be property or family or reputation or security or your life itself."

Another hindrance is your desire for some sense of security.  When the Lord asks you to move forward, you want to know if it will be safe.  We do not like to have our sense of security disturbed.  We are not willing to be like the saints of old that paid a price, at times, to do the Lord's work. We do not like the idea of possibly being put in any position of peril, even though we say that we totally trust God and would give our very lives for Him. 

Maybe when you accepted Christ you were taught that this is all there is.  There was no suggestion that you needed to grow and mature.  Accepting Christ was simply sealing your place in heaven and then continuing with your life as before.  There was no encouragement or admonition to advance in your spiritual walk. If this is what you were told, how could you expect to grow and become mature in Christ?  Were you taught to be content with your salvation?  If proper and sound teaching of the Word of God is not used and you do try to go forward, you can be labeled as being some type of fanatic. It is often insinuated, or even spoken outright, that you should be happy with where you are and that should be enough for you.

Perhaps you have become disillusioned with the Body of Christ.  A. W. Tozer describes it this way,    "When we are first converted, especially if we come from a non-Christian background, we are likely to be almost too naive for our own good. The wondrous experience through which we have just passed, or perhaps I should say into which we have entered, has predisposed us to believe in everybody. Our trust in other Christians is likely to be boundless. That there could be hypocrites, double-minded professors, religious pretenders, carnal camp followers, never once enters our minds. The result is that our first encounter with a worldly church member comes as a frightful shock to our sensitive minds. Some never recover from this shattering of their confidence. They become religious cripples. Their growth is stunted and their usefulness destroyed, or at the least greatly hindered from that moment on."

You are not eager for inward change or did not realize the need for it.  You feel satisfied with how you are at the present and have no desire for the Lord to work on you in the area of your beliefs, attitudes or thoughts.  You  believe change on the outside is all that matters (i.e. you dress better, you do not use curse words). This is just like the Pharisees of the New Testament who went about dressing properly, eating carefully and preaching what they had learned from the Old Testament.  Jesus was so angry at their outward righteous demeanor that He said in Matthew 23:27-28, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."   If the reason is because you did not realize that you need to change on the inside, ask the Lord to show you what areas He wants to work on in your life.  

      

Then there is always the enemy, Satan, whose oldest trick is to get you to begin questioning God so you feel discouraged.  He wants you to look forward, in fear.  He likes to stir up the doubts, concerns and uncertainty that is within you. Satan will often try to get you focused on your past mistakes, telling you that those will hold you back and that you are of no use to God.  He does not want you to remember that with God all things are past and all things are new. You cannot look at what is going on around you or listen to the enemy's lies and tricks. You cannot grow in Christ if your eyes are not solely on Him.  

The devoted person who willingly follows the Lord does not ask about consequences, does not argue with God's plan for their lives and certainly should not question God's wisdom.  This is not to say that following God is an easy thing. The believer who really wants to follow God's will and know the truth will do what God asks, even if it is difficult.  They may be anxious or worried about how it will all work out, but they will step out in faith regardless.  

God knows that what He asks of us can be difficult, and it is during those times that we can be assured that He will be with us.  It is during challenging times that we see God work.  If we simply do not desire to see God do wonderful things in our lives, then all we have to do is stay in our comfort zone, remain an immature believer and we will have the say as to how our life goes.  But remember, God saves His unexpected blessings and last moment saves for those who are following His will, and it is in those times that your walk with God grows that much stronger and your love for Him that much deeper.  If you want to see God work in your life,  you need to be willing to step out in faith.  It is during these times that He shows Himself as being faithful, and the awesome and unexpected happens.

The Apostle Paul is a good example of one who was not content with merely knowing he had received salvation.  He longed to know God more and to be used by Him (Book of Philippians, Chapter Three).  If your desire is to become as mature as possible, and experience all that God has for you, then you must seriously consider which of these hindrances you have allowed into your life and make the decision to not let any of them hold you back any longer.  I am sure that if you pray, and seek God, He will show you what is holding you back and how to overcome them.  The end result is that you will grow more, and you will develop the closer and more intimate walk with God that you desire.