When Spiritual Growth Feels Slow

Do you ever feel as if you’re working hard toward a goal but getting nowhere? It’s as if you’re spinning your wheels—pouring out effort and energy without gaining traction. Maybe you’re exercising regularly, but the scale won’t budge. Maybe you’re carefully budgeting, yet money is still tight. Or perhaps you’re investing in your children—teaching good manners, kindness, and love for Jesus—yet their behavior hasn’t changed.

Our spiritual lives can sometimes feel like that too. We’re doing the things we know we’re supposed to do, yet it doesn’t seem as though we’re growing. We long to be closer to God and see evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Is something wrong with us—or could God be at work in ways we can’t yet see? What does it look like to truly live a fruitful life?

What Is Fruitfulness?

Since the beginning of Revive Our Hearts in 2001, its mission has been “to call women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness.” But what does it mean to be fruitful?

Merriam-Webster defines fruitful as “yielding or producing fruit, conducive to an abundant yield, abundantly productive.”¹ We easily understand this concept when it comes to a tree or a plant. In human lives, fruitfulness is seen in visible results that show evidence of growth.

Fruitfulness is a theme we find woven throughout God’s Word. At the very beginning, God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful, multiply” (Gen. 1:22, 28). He then repeated that same command to Noah (8:17; 9:1, 7) and to Jacob (35:11).

But fruitfulness is not only a command in Scripture; it’s also a promise. God told Abraham He would make him “extremely fruitful” (17:6). He gave a similar assurance regarding Ishmael (17:20). And He promised that if the Israelites obeyed His commands, they would experience His blessing and increase (Lev. 26:9).

In the New Testament, fruitfulness is the result of Christlike character formed through a close, intimate relationship with Him (John 15). As we abide in Christ, the fruit being cultivated in our inward lives becomes visible outwardly in the characteristics known as the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23).

Yet this process of growing fruit isn’t something that happens overnight. Sometimes it takes quite a while before we begin to see evidence of growth.

Several months ago, during a Revive Our Hearts team chapel, Robert Wolgemuth shared these thoughts on this subject:

My favorite thing about fruitfulness is . . . that it’s not vegetables, it’s fruit. For fruit to grow, you have to be patient. I mean, every farm in the backyard includes zucchini because there’s such a payoff. And everybody brings zucchini to the office, and you’ve tried everything—zucchini bread, zucchini pies, zucchini whatever. But fruit is different. Fruit is the by-product of a tree being planted in a spot and staying there for a long time. Doing the right thing. Being patient. And waiting for the fruit. It’s a by-product of something.²

Fruit is a by-product of continuing to seek an intimate relationship with the Lord. As Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has said, “Spiritual fruitfulness is the result, the overflow, of our union with Christ and His Word. As you walk with Christ in the light of His Word, He will make you spiritually fruitful!”³

The Soil of Our Lives

Before we can see a bountiful harvest, we must also look at the soil. Just as the quality of earth affects the crop of apples or pears, the condition of our hearts determines what our lives will yield. Jesus addressed this in the Parable of the Sower:

“Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep.But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:3–8)

Even the best seeds struggle without good soil. God often uses the circumstances and experiences of our lives to prepare our hearts to receive truth and grow spiritually. And that growth is often slow—and hidden.

In a culture of instant gratification, we want results now. But true, lasting growth takes time.

Scripture is full of examples of people who spent long seasons in preparation before stepping into God’s calling. Moses lived forty years in the desert while God developed humility and patience in his life. Joseph endured thirteen years of slavery and imprisonment, learning to trust in the Lord. David spent more than a decade on the run from Saul, which cultivated a deep dependence on God. Even Paul spent three years in the Arabian desert before meeting the other apostles, growing in his faith and understanding of Christ.

If you’re not seeing evidence of spiritual growth right now, don’t be discouraged. Consider that this may be a season of soil preparation.What feels like a delay may actually be God doing His deepest work.

Tending the Soil

Still, we are not called to just sit back on our heels and do nothing. God invites us to participate in tending the soil of our hearts so that it will become “good ground.”

How do we do that?

Most importantly, we stay in God’s Word—reading and studying it consistently. Even when we don’t feel like it. Even when we don’t understand a passage. Even when we struggle to stay focused and have to reread the same verses multiple times.

We remain faithful in prayer. We praise God for who He is. We confess our sins. We thank Him for His many blessings. We ask for help for ourselves and others. We cry out to Him in desperation. We stop and listen for His response. Prayer becomes a normal part of our lives—a continual conversation with the Lord.

And as we go about our days, we do the things God has already told us to do. We “rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in everything” (1 Thess. 5:16–18). We abstain from sexual immorality (1 Thess. 4:3). We pursue holiness and peace with everyone (Heb. 12:14). And above all, we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt. 22:37–39).

We say “Yes, Lord!” and obey Him even in the small things, remembering that faithfulness matters more than quick results. We may not see dramatic growth today or tomorrow, but steady consistency, over time, will produce lasting fruit.

Even when we faithfully obey God, there may still be seasons of life that feel unproductive. But God is not absent, and He is not finished working in and through you. As Paul reminds us, “He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). 

Fruit will come in God’s timing. And Paul offers this additional encouragement: “Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up” (Gal. 6:9). 

Keep on keeping on.

Hope for a Future Harvest

My husband and I own a small orchard of more than ninety fruit trees. That sounds idyllic, but there’s a caveat—so far, it’s an orchard without fruit. 

When we moved to our current home four and a half years ago, we began planting trees each spring. We have faithfully watered, sprayed, pruned, and added nutrients to the soil. So far, our work has not produced an actual yield. But we continue in hope, trusting that one day our efforts will produce a bounty of fruit.

Friend, if you’re discouraged today in your spiritual life, don’t give up. Keep seeking an intimate relationship with God. Though you may not see it today, the Lord is at work in your heart. Keep watering. Keep tending. And trust that your faithfulness will bear fruit in His perfect timing. One day, by God’s grace, you will see an abundant harvest.

¹ Merriam-Webster, s.v. “fruitful,” Merriam-Webster.com,https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fruitful.

² Robert Wolgemuth, Revive Our Hearts Chapel, 8/26/25.

³ Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, “Blessing and Fruitfulness,” Revive Our Hearts, November 30, 2023,https://www.reviveourhearts.com/podcast/revive-our-hearts/blessing-and-fruitfulness/.