Spiritual growth is not measured only by what you complete. It is revealed by who you are becoming.
How do you know whether you are actually growing in your faith?
For many Christian women, the answer is connected to something measurable:
- How consistently am I reading my Bible?
- How many days have I prayed this week?
- Did I finish the devotional?
- Am I attending church regularly?
- How many Christian books have I read?
These practices can support our spiritual growth. They create opportunities for us to spend time with God, learn His truth, and become more aware of His presence. But completing them does not necessarily mean transformation is taking place.
You can finish a Bible plan without allowing what you read to change the way you respond to a difficult person.
You can maintain a prayer streak while still trying to control every outcome.
You can fill pages in a journal without becoming more honest with God about what is happening inside you.
Spiritual activities are not the same as spiritual growth.
The better question is not simply, “What have I completed?”
It is:
What fruit is showing up in my life?
The Difference Between Activity and Transformation
Throughout the last few blogs, we have been looking at some of the assumptions we carry about spiritual growth.
We have talked about why doing more will not necessarily help you grow closer to God.
We have questioned the spiritual “shoulds” that make you feel as though you are constantly falling behind.
We have also explored why God never asked you to grow exactly like everyone else.
Now we need to talk about what growth actually looks like.
If we have not met before, I’m Deneen Troupe-Buitrago. I’m a Faith Growth and Work Alignment Strategist, and I help high-capacity Christian women build a personal faith life that fuels their work and leadership.
That means I spend a lot of time helping women move beyond generalized expectations and discover how they connect with God, process truth, and grow in the way He uniquely designed them.
But personalized faith growth does not mean we get to define growth any way we want. Our practices may look different, but they should still produce fruit.
Jesus said that when we remain connected to Him, our lives will bear fruit. Galatians 5 describes some of that fruit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Those qualities cannot be measured by the number of boxes you checked this week. They become visible in the way you live.
If you have been wondering where you are in your faith, what may be holding you back, or what kind of support would help you move forward, this is exactly what we can explore in a Faith Potential Session.
It is a private conversation designed to help you see the faith life you want, the gap between where you are and where you want to be, and the next step that makes sense for you.
Growth Shows Up in Your Responses
One of the clearest places to look for spiritual growth is in the way you respond to real life.
- What happens when someone disappoints you?
- How do you respond when a plan changes?
- What do you do when your work is not producing the results you expected?
- Where does your mind go when you feel uncertain, overlooked, or overwhelmed?
Perhaps you still experience frustration, but you recover more quickly.
Maybe you are beginning to pause before reacting.
Perhaps you are learning to bring your disappointment to God instead of pretending it does not bother you.
Maybe you are becoming more willing to listen, forgive, set a healthy boundary, or admit that you were wrong.
You may still feel afraid, but fear no longer makes every decision for you. That is growth.
Growth is not the absence of difficult emotions. It is the increasing presence of God’s truth within the way you experience and respond to those emotions.
Growth Often Looks Smaller Than We Expect
We sometimes miss our growth because we are looking for something dramatic.
We expect to become completely patient, completely confident, or completely free from an old struggle. When that does not happen, we assume we have not changed.
But spiritual growth is often revealed through small shifts.
You recognize an unhealthy thought sooner. You ask God for help before reaching the point of exhaustion. You notice that comparison is pulling you away from your assignment.
You return to God more quickly after becoming distracted. You make one decision based on trust instead of fear. You respond to someone with more compassion than you would have a year ago.
You allow yourself to rest without believing you have to earn it.
These changes may not look impressive from the outside, but they are evidence that your relationship with God is shaping you.
You are not looking for perfection. You are looking for direction.
- Are you becoming more receptive to God?
- Are you more willing to trust Him?
- Is His truth influencing your choices?
- Are you learning to recognize His presence in ordinary moments?
- Is the way you live becoming more consistent with the woman He is shaping you to be?
Some Growth Happens Beneath the Surface
There are also seasons when growth is difficult to see.
Think about a seed planted beneath the soil. For a time, everything important is happening where no one can observe it. Roots are forming before anything appears above the ground.
Your faith may have seasons like that.
You may be learning how to remain with God in uncertainty. You may be releasing an expectation you have carried for years. You may be questioning an old belief that connected God’s approval with your productivity. You may be discovering that a spiritual practice that helped you in one season no longer fits the season you are in now.
This inner work may not produce an immediate, visible result. That does not mean nothing is happening.
Sometimes growth looks like clarity.
Sometimes it looks like surrender.
Sometimes it looks like becoming honest about what is not working.
Sometimes it looks like allowing God to rebuild the foundation before you try to produce more visible fruit.
This is why comparison is such an unreliable way to evaluate your faith. You can see what another woman is doing, but you cannot always see what God is developing within her.
The same is true for you.
Spiritual Practices Are Tools, Not the Finish Line
Your Bible reading, prayer, worship, journaling, service, study, and time in Christian community all matter. They help create space for connection with God and cooperation with the Holy Spirit. But the goal is not to become a woman who is exceptionally good at completing spiritual activities.
The goal is to become a woman whose life is increasingly shaped by her relationship with God. Your practices are tools that support that transformation. They are not the finish line. This means we should evaluate our spiritual rhythms by more than consistency alone.
You can ask:
- Is this practice helping me become more aware of God?
- Am I engaging with truth or simply completing a task?
- Is this rhythm helping me trust God in my actual life?
- Am I carrying what I am learning into my work and relationships?
- What is changing in the way I think, choose, respond, or lead?
A practice does not have to be lengthy or impressive to be meaningful.
A few minutes spent honestly listening to God may shape you more deeply than finishing several chapters while your mind and heart remain disengaged.
The question is not, “Does this look substantial enough?”
The question is, “Is this helping me remain connected to God and respond to what He is doing in me?”
Look Back Far Enough to See the Change
If you evaluate your growth only by how you felt today, you may overlook what God has been doing over time.
Think about who you were six months ago or a year ago. Consider a challenge you are handling differently now. Remember a truth that once felt difficult to believe but has begun to feel more deeply rooted. Notice where you are recovering more quickly, choosing more wisely, or responding more graciously.
Ask someone who knows you well what changes they have noticed.
You may discover that fruit has been growing quietly while you were focused on everything you had not yet accomplished.
There will always be more to learn. There will always be places where God is inviting you to mature. Recognizing growth does not mean believing the work is finished.
It means acknowledging that God has been faithful in the process.
A Different Way to Measure This Week
Instead of counting only how many days you completed a spiritual practice, take a few minutes to look for fruit.
At the end of the day, ask yourself:
Where did I notice God shaping the way I responded today?
Perhaps you chose patience in a conversation.
Perhaps you stopped working when your body needed rest.
Perhaps you asked for help.
Perhaps you told the truth instead of saying what you thought someone wanted to hear.
Perhaps you returned to God after realizing you had been operating in your own strength.
Write down one piece of evidence, however small.
Over time, you will begin to see a different kind of record. It will not simply show what you did for your faith. It will show what your relationship with God is producing in you.
That is the growth we are looking for.
- Not more activity for the sake of feeling spiritual.
- Not a perfect record.
- Not someone else’s definition of what faithfulness should look like.
We are looking for a life that is becoming more rooted in God, more responsive to His direction, and more reflective of His character.
If you are having difficulty recognizing that growth in your own life, or you know you are ready for a more personal approach to your faith, I invite you to schedule a Faith Potential Session.
During this private conversation, we will explore the faith life you want, where you are now, and what may be keeping you from moving forward. We can also determine whether the Faith Design Profile Experience would be the right next step for you.
The Profile gives you something personalized and done for you. It helps you understand how God designed you to connect with Him, grow in your faith, and allow that faith to shape your work and everyday life. You do not have to keep trying to figure that out alone.
I would also love to hear from you:
As you look back over the past several months, what is one piece of fruit that shows you your faith really is growing?
Share it in the comments.
Be filled to overflowing,
DeneenTB
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