Hindrances to Growth and Service

Many things can hinder our Christian growth and ability to worship and serve Jesus Christ effectively.  We all have an area or areas in our life that needs special attention and application of discipline so that we are not hindered in our daily race.  It differs for each person, for one persons strength may be another one’s weakness.  But we all have areas that are weak that could use strengthening.  The danger is in thinking that all we need to do is offset this weakness with one of our strengths.  But when it comes to Holy Living, trying to offset sinfulness or ungodliness with righteousness and holiness is ineffective and trips us up in our living for the Lord.  This is because godliness and holiness is corrupted by sinfulness and selfishness.  They don’t just weigh us down; they trip us up so that we ineffectually run the race.  So it behooves us to take a look at those hindrances and strive to win mastery in them through Christ who strengthens and gives us the victory!

Hindrances to Spiritual Growth

There are things that tend to steal our passion and focus; hindrances to personal growth and worship.  It is incumbent that each believer take an introspective look to root out those things that would bleed off our passion and love for Christ and get them arranged in proper priority so that Christ has first place.  This isn’t easy, and it takes focus.  God had given the nation of Israel a holy feast to emphasize the importance of removing hindrances of fellowship with Him.  During the feast of unleavened bread, families would purge out all the leaven from within the house.  Even the children would get involved to find and remove that which symbolically represented sin.  It is sin which separates and diminishes our fellowship with God.  Jesus opened the way to God by the blood He shed for our sins.  But unconfessed and unsurrendered sin can inhibit growth or cause spiritual atrophy.  If we are to worship and serve the Lord effectively, we must assess our priorities to make sure they are in line with clear Biblical teaching.