4 Enemies to Christian Spiritual Growth

 I want to ask you a question. What is the purpose of having devotional time? Now, I want to ask you a better question. What is God’s purpose for your devotional time?

The answer requires one word, Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God with us. The entire point of devotional time with God is to know God. God desires a relationship with us. When we set aside time to relate with God, our knowledge of God increases. Through a habitual relationship with God, we can grow closer to Him. Not only in knowledge but by growing in our desire for His presence.

As we relate with God and realize who He is, God’s purposes are completed. God’s purposes are never detached from us but benefit us. It really is about relationship. God desires and purposes to have a relationship with every human being. It’s impossible to separate God’s purposes from His love. God is love and will always extend grace to sinners.

The only person that can stop communion with God is us. There are many ways we hinder our devotional time with God. I wish to highlight a few.

Expecting results

We live in a results culture. Everything is about results. It’s easy to bring this to our devotional time. We approach Scripture as if it’s on the countdown to prove itself. We believe that Scripture will produce miraculous fruit in an instant. Scripture then fails to meet our timeline and we question its authenticity.

Not only does our culture like results, but it also likes ease. So, when we read the Bible and don’t see dramatic changes overnight, we begin to question its validity. We conceptualize the Bible as a weight loss pill that has overnight results. When it doesn’t, we don’t question ourselves, we question the Word of God. I think we’ve got this backward. This screams user error not a misdirection from the manual.

I think John Stott said it best,

“We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.”

Trust me with one thing. If we approach the Word of God with the belief it can change us, it will change us. The conclusion will always be different from our expectations. Not only can we not control the results, but the results are often radically different from what we could imagine. Through time we can look back at our lives and see the results of God’s handiwork in our lives.

Don’t be searching for results. Search for God, through His word, and you will find Him.

Busyness

The most precious commodity you have is not money. Value is not spelled U.S.D. but T.I.M.E. The most valuable resource you have is time. Not only is it a valuable resource, but it reveals where you place your treasure.

The average American spends four hours a day watching TV. We not only consume excessive TV, but we also spend almost four hours on our phones each day. That’s a lot of dopamine.

It only gets worse…

The Lifeway research group surveyed evangelicals and found that only 68% read their Bible at least once a week. That means that 32 % of evangelicals never read their Bible. Imagine the percentage of the 68 % that don’t read their Bible regularly on top of that. It’s a grim stat but the reality is the vast majority of evangelicals are spiritually malnourished. The words of Charles Spurgeon ring true,

“There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write ‘damnation’ with your fingers.”

It’s important to note that the issue is not laziness. Americans are not lazy; they are extremely busy. We are choking our devotional time with God out of our lives through the schedules we create and the idolatry of self and work we possess.

We must understand that our time is valuable. Where we spend our time reveals what we treasure. If we treasure God and His word, we will cut some things out of our lives. This will alleviate the choking and our spiritual lives will be revitalized.

Perfectionism

Americans have paralysis by analysis. We spend more time thinking about how to do something, more than we actualize. There is no perfect way to have devotional time with God. You don’t need to search YouTube for how to relate with God. Just start relating with God.

Open His word and simply start reading. Rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you. It’s not about being a Bible expert, it’s not about becoming a systematic theologian either. I thank God for these disciplined men and women, but you don’t start there. You might never end up there and that’s ok!

There is no excuse not to start. God never intended you to rely on a book, pastor, or philosophy. These things are great, but God wants you to rely ON HIM! The only way you can rely on Him is if you have a devotional time with Him.

Remember you’re relating with the God who knows everything about you. You don’t have to hide. You don’t have to wait to be perfect. He knows you’re not.

He knows you will interpret the Bible wrong. It’s all about correction. God wants to correct us through His word. It’s impossible to correct a person who is waiting to be or thinks they are, perfect.

I love these words of Deitrich Bonhoeffer,

Just as God’s love entered the world, thereby submitting to the misunderstanding and ambiguity that characterize everything worldly, so also Christian love does not exist anywhere but in the worldly, in an infinite variety of concrete worldly action, and subject to misunderstanding and condemnation. Every attempt to portray a Christianity of ‘pure’ love purged of worldly ‘impurities’ is a false purism and perfectionism that scorns God’s becoming human and falls prey to the fate of all ideologies. God was not too pure to enter the world.

God is pure. God is also perfection. God the only one who is perfectly pure entered time and space as a human. God experienced the frailties of the sinful human condition without sin. Based on this reality, we should approach God with boldness despite our imperfections. God doesn’t want your perfection; He wants you.

Legalism

Probably the biggest enemy to your devotional time is legalism. If we approach the Bible seeking self-justification, we will miss the message. If we miss the message, then we’ve wasted our time. Remember what I said about time?

You might have perceived this, but legalism is the root of all three listed above. A legalist will seek personal results, be busy justifying themselves and seek perfection.

A legalist will focus on others, and how they are better than them. A legalist will focus on the self and see how they don’t measure up. A legalist will see everything but God. If we go into our devotional time as a legalist, we will never come out better or neutral BUT WORSE.

Legalism nags at your soul. It doesn’t make you apathetic but antagonistic to God. It’s even worse, it makes you think you are God.

Religious legalists are the black holes of the universe. Not only are they miserable but they make everyone else miserable. If you are a miserable Christian, ask yourself, “am I being legalistic?”. I guarantee you (I admit this from personal experience), that if you have negative emotions surrounding your devotional time with God, it’s probably legalism.

You want to mess up the minds of your children? Here’s how — guaranteed! Rear them in a legalistic, tight context of external religion, where performance is more important than reality. Fake your faith. Sneak around and pretend your spirituality. Train your children to do the same. Embrace a long list of do’s and don’ts publicly but hypocritically practice them privately… yet never own up to the fact that its hypocrisy. Act one way but live another. And you can count on it — emotional and spiritual damage will occur.

— Chuck Swindoll

The reality is that we sometimes come to our devotional time and have nothing. This is not the time to muster up more legalism. Simply sit with God. He will find you there. His grace is sufficient for you. You don’t need anything more than Him.

Conclusion

Our daily devotional time is under attack. We are constantly bombarded with distractions. Every day it becomes more difficult to find time to relate with God.

We live in a culture that is results-oriented, expects perfection, achieves by being busy, and thrives on self-justifying legalism. All of these traits suffocate our daily time with God.

God is waiting for us. He loves us and cares for us. He knows we can’t perform, that we cannot be perfect, that we prefer busyness to quietness with Him, and that we prefer safety in legalism to exposure and authenticity.

What we need is God and time with Him. We do not need more reasons to save ourselves.