Busyness. Over commitment to worldly aims at the expense of spiritual pursuits is the bane of the modern Christian. The devil need not involve you in wicked things to stunt your growth. He need only to fill your plate with a little of this-and-that so that you never have room for things of substance. Children spoil their appetites with cakes and snacks and in-between meals. You ruin your appetite for the word of God and for spiritual activity when you don’t save room for the Lord’s things. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is the motivation of the growing Christian with the Lord’s promise of fulfillment (Matthew 5:6). That incentive is missing in the heart of the Christian who is too busy.

Hypocrisy. Secret sin is a cancer. It’s presence is not readily apparent, but it’s there nonetheless—growing. From the outside, a man may seem sound and godly, but inside he is “full of dead man’s bones” (Matthew 23:27). Hypocrisy is a cancer of the heart. It eats at your character from the inside out, so that you fall before anybody diagnoses your problem. Nobody sees it coming. You appear to leave the faith all at once when, in reality, you died long ago. Hypocrisy destroys the core of your character, and renders the entirety of your life and religion a mere shell. The hypocrite is a walking corpse, a living tomb. There can be no growth when you nurture secret sin. It will eat you alive. You will look to be growing, when in fact you’re dying. Be sure of one thing—“your sins will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

Performance. Mistaking public performance for growth is a subtle and far too common variety of hypocrisy. Preachers beware. A man can suppose that as goes his preaching, so goes his spirituality. Not so. All of Nineveh repented at the preaching Jonah (3:5), while the prophet himself was eaten up with bitterness (4:1). Teachers beware. “Thou that teachest another, teachest not thyself” (Romans 2:21)? Don’t mistake your skills and successes in distributing and illustrating the word of God, as the end of your service. “Be ye doers of the word” (James 1:22) and not teachers only who delude themselves. Worshipers beware. The Pharisees led fine public prayers and wore their best “Sunday dress” but neglected mercy and holiness (Luke 20:47). You can suppose that occupying a pew or even participating in the public assembly is sufficient exercise for spiritual growth. It’s an exercise in futility, if day-to-day righteousness, week-in and week-out cross-bearing, and seventy-times-seven forgiveness are not habits of character for you.

Watch out for these enemies to your growth. There are others. But these, particularly, are common and doubly dangerous because of their familiarity. What you do about them is up to you, because growth is a choice. Your choice. Nobody can do it for you. Nobody will. It’s up to you. “Choose you this day….” You can either stray where you are, or you can grow.