5 Challenging Bible Verses About Your Spiritual Growth

Here are 5 challenging Bible verses about your spiritual growth. Which ones would you add?

Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Those who hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God receive God’s blessing because if they are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, they will be satisfied. God says that if we lack for wisdom, we can ask for it and God will give it to us (James 1:5). The point is we must have a deep hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness and He will give it to us and then we’ll “be satisfied.” Do we really have this deep desire to know Him better like the thirst a deer has which pants for the streams of water (Psalm 42:1)?

Second Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

No one grows spiritually without the daily bread of the Word of God but Peter here gives as an imperative command to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. We are not saved to only set ourselves on a spiritual autopilot and then coast to the finish line. Paul said that he pressed toward the goal for the prize of his upward calling (Phi 3:14) so it takes intentional effort. This pressing on is from the Greek word “diōkō” which means to “run swiftly” or to “run after” so it is a concerted effort to grow in grace and knowledge. It takes diligent work.

Second Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Paul commands, not suggests, that Timothy does his best to have God’s approval as a workman of the Word which doesn’t need to be ashamed as he rightly handles or discerns the word of truth or the Scriptures. It takes hard work to study the Scriptures and it’s necessary to receive God’s approval. God is against the slothful (Rom 12:11; Prov 6:6, 13:4) but approves of those who work hard at studying the Word.

Colossians 1:9-10 “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

Once again we see the necessity of being filled with the knowledge of God’s will and to bear “fruit in every good work” and this includes “increasing in the knowledge of God” because the study of God’s Word is to discover what God’s will is and to be bearing fruit in every good work proves that you bear fruit as a result of abiding in God’s Word (John 15:1-8). To bear more godly fruit we must be increasing our knowledge of God and abiding in His Word on a daily basis.

Ephesians 4:19-20 “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Paul tells the church at Ephesus to “grow up in every way into Him,” that is Christ. This growth of individual church members makes “the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” If someone is not growing they are not building up the church in love.

Conclusion

We all need to grow in the knowledge of God and spiritual growth takes the discipline of daily Bible study and prayer and learning from one another. We grow stronger when we are together but no one grows as much in isolation. That’s why we need one another to bear spiritual fruit and to spiritually mature. That’s something that every believer needs every day.