{"id":8155,"date":"2012-02-02T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mintools.com\/blog\/?p=8155"},"modified":"2024-04-18T14:19:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:19:17","slug":"spiritual-adolescents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mintools.com\/blog\/spiritual-adolescents.htm","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Growth Levels: Ministering to Spiritual Adolescents"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"SpiritualThe Bible does not actually refer to spiritual adolescence but does mention other spiritual growth levels<\/a> such as infants, children, adult (young men), parents (fathers).<\/p>\n

ADOLESCENTS could easily be included as a level between children and adults.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Have you ever heard the frustration of believers who truly want to live for God and grow in their relationship with Him as they say, “It’s like I take one step forward and two steps back”?\u00a0 They would describe their walk like a roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs.\u00a0 While we all can experience peaks and valleys in our walk with God, for some this seems to consistently be their experience.\u00a0 These are the believers I would call “spiritual adolescents.”<\/p>\n

Spiritual infants and children can experience this as well but they don’t have the strong desire spiritual adolescents have to grow and become who God wants them to be.<\/p>\n

Spiritual Adolescents Described<\/h2>\n

Romans 7 seems to especially fit the adolescence growth level.<\/p>\n

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.\u00a0 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.\u00a0 . . .\u00a0 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” (Rom. 7:18-19, 22-23)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0 Adolescents consistently struggle between what they know they should be doing and what they actually do.\u00a0 They struggle because they want to be mature yet so often fail.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0 Adolescents consequently struggle with how they feel about themselves as Christians.\u00a0 They get to feeling defeated, like they will never get there.<\/p>\n

Ministering to Those at This Level of Spiritual Growth<\/h2>\n