Perhaps you know what it’s like to try and lose weight, succeed for a while, and then all of a sudden, hit a plateau. The same thing often happens in our spiritual lives.
Maybe you discovered something new in your faith that rocked your world, and you felt like you were on cloud nine for months afterward.
And then you woke up and the honeymoon phase was over…
Jereme and I have struggled with this since we began learning that the Torah is still relevant and applicable for believers today. In case you’ve never heard that term, “Torah” is a Hebrew word that means “instructions” (though it’s translated in most Bibles as “Law”), and is commonly distinguished as the first five books of the Bible.
We’ve had many “highs” and “lows” over the last three years since becoming “Torah-pursuant” (seeking to follow God’s instructions.) And even back in my high school days, I can recall several emotionally-charged, honeymoon-like experiences after becoming a Christian.
It makes you doubt yourself a little. You start asking questions like:
“Was that really the Holy Spirit speaking to me and leading me down this path? Or was it merely my emotional bias?”
When we first came into this new “understanding”, we were so excited to begin sharing everything we had learned with our family and friends. We thought they’d be overjoyed just as we were. We fantasized about doing away with our old traditions and holidays and adopting the Biblical feast days together. We couldn’t wait to inform the world that “Churchianity” had lied to us all these years about what the Bible actually says.
Of course, in order to do that, we had to read our Bibles, something I had never entirely done (not even close). And we were pretty excited about doing that. We dove right in and began to devour every page like it was the best meal we had ever eaten. As we read, we began to share our newfound way of life with our family and friends.
Unfortunately for us, they were not nearly as excited as we were… (Looking back, I can’t blame them. We were on the verge of becoming “Torah Terrorists” and probably would have if we hadn’t found a community of folks to knock us back down a few pegs.)
As we got deeper into Leviticus and Numbers, the reading became a bit less exciting and a bit more … challenging (to say the least).
We had hit a spiritual plateau of sorts.
In the last three years, since coming into a Torah-pursuant walk, I have managed to hit — and overcome — this plateau more than once, and I thought it might be helpful to share my experience and a few tips for how to maintain your momentum as you pursue the ways of our Heavenly Father and His Kingdom.
If you landed here from a web search and you don’t consider yourself a “Torah-pursuant” believer, don’t worry. These tips apply for all Christians. (And truthfully, we aren’t big on labels, either!)
How to Overcome a Spiritual Plateau
Tip #1: Pray and Study
Go ahead and call me captain obvious. I know this sounds like a very cliché piece of advice, but chances are, if you’ve hit a spiritual plateau, it’s probably been a while since you’ve really prayed and spent time in His Word. We have the amazing privilege of kneeling before the Creator of Heaven and Earth whenever we so desire. I’ve often wondered why we don’t take advantage of it as frequently as possible.
Going along with the weight loss analogy from earlier … There are often days when I don’t really feel like working out, but I force myself to do it anyway, because I know the physical result it brings. If I didn’t, I’d likely hit a plateau and start to gain weight again. In the same way, I think it’s important to regularly exercise our spiritual “muscles.” There will be days when you don’t feel like setting aside time to pray and read your Bible. But if you treat it like a muscle and choose to exercise it, whether you want to or not, your relationship with God will grow in ways you probably never even imagined.
Tip #2: Memorize Scripture.
I only recently began to experience the benefits of doing this after entering into a year-long Scripture memorization challenge with some members of our fellowship. Each week, we were given a new verse or short passage in the Bible to commit to memory. But it wasn’t just about recalling the words themselves. I actually began reciting these Scriptures throughout the day as a way of taking my thoughts captive. This is especially helpful in stressful situations, and the more I do it, the closer I feel to God. I highly recommend adopting this practice if you haven’t already.
Tip #3: Focus on Yeshua (Jesus).
This particular tip may resonate more with the Torah-pursuant community, but I think it applies to all believers. Those of us who are new to this walk tend to gravitate more toward reading the Torah & Old Testament books, and in doing so, may get caught up in how well we’re actually observing the Torah (a.k.a. “keeping the Law”.)
Yeshua (Jesus) not only kept the Torah perfectly—to the Letter—he demonstrated the Spirit of the Law, which is love. You can keep the Law outwardly, but, inwardly, if your heart is not not walking in love, you’re missing the point. By the same token, you may not keep every letter of the Law to Yeshua’s standards (in fact, you’re likely to fail in many respects). But if your heart is diligently seeking Him, that’s what matters.
As an example, David committed adultery and murder, yet he was called “a man after God’s own heart.” Something to think about…
The enemy is an accuser and will often try to bring us down by whispering lies into our ears. However, we can stand on God’s Word, which says that all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. Stay focused on Yeshua, our eternal example of what it means to keep Torah from the heart.
Tip #4: Keep the Sabbath. Again, even if you don’t consider yourself a Torah-pursuant believer, you likely attend church once a week and in doing so, are attempting to obey the 4th commandment. I’m not here to debate the details around when and what the Sabbath is and what it actually means to “rest” (Perhaps we’ll save that for another post ;) … )
My point is that we should be intentional about setting aside time to spend with God, praying and reading His Word. Just as He set apart a day of rest after He had finished creating, we are commanded to set apart a day each week to rest in Him.
Perhaps you find it hard to pray and study, because it feels like a big time commitment. If setting aside time every single day seems daunting, you can always count on the once-a-week Sabbath as an opportunity to exercise your spiritual muscles.
Tip #5: Find Community. This is so important. Being part of a community helps in several ways:
First, as you pray and study His Word with other like-minded believers, you’ll always be learning and challenging one another, which makes you less likely to hit a spiritual plateau.
Second, you’ll have people to hold you accountable and accompany you in the task of sharing your faith with others. (I don’t know about you, but the thought of doing that alone is really scary to me.)
Third, you’ll have a support team in times of need. I can’t tell you how thankful we were for all of the meals we received from the members of our fellowship following the birth of our third child.
Bottom line: there is strength in numbers.
“A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” – Eccl. 4:12
Have you ever hit a spiritual plateau? What did you find most helpful in trying to overcome it? Share your experiences with us in the comments!
