A Spiritual SWOT Analysis

Most folks hear the word “SWOT” and think business plans, strategic retreats, and coffee that costs too much. But the SWOT tool—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats—actually fits pretty well into the spiritual life. Faith isn’t something we just “have,” it’s something we tend. Like a garden, or a 1970s pickup truck that you swear only needs one more part to run right.

Faith changes with the seasons of life. Some seasons are lush and green, others feel dry and cracked. The trick is learning to step back, take inventory, and adjust. That’s where the SWOT comes in. It’s not about beating yourself up or pretending you’ve got it all together. It’s about honesty, humility, and a willingness to grow. God appreciates that more than perfection. Perfection never needed saving anyway.

Strengths

Let’s start with the good news. Everyone has spiritual strengths—even if you think you’re running on fumes. Maybe you’re steady in prayer. Maybe you show up for others when it counts. Maybe your strength is quiet faithfulness…the kind that doesn’t get posted on social media, but makes life richer for everyone around you.

Strengths point to how God built you: your resilience, your empathy, your ability to encourage, to listen, to endure, to hope. Those are gifts. And recognizing them isn’t pride, it’s stewardship. A farmer has to know what crops he has before he can tend the field.

Weaknesses

This is the part where people tend to squirm. Weaknesses sound like personal failings, but they’re really just areas that need attention. Pride, impatience, fear, resentment—everyone carries something, and no one is unique in that department. Weaknesses show us where growth is possible, and growth is the whole point.

A good spiritual SWOT makes space for honesty. If your prayer life feels inconsistent…say so. If cynicism has taken root…name it. If faith feels thin because the world has been harsh—well, that’s understandable, and worth acknowledging. Weaknesses aren’t disqualifiers. They’re invitations.

Opportunities

This is where the whole exercise gets interesting. When you look at your strengths and weaknesses side by side, opportunities start to show themselves. That restless feeling you’ve been carrying? Maybe it’s the nudge to reconnect with church, or to serve, or to dust off Scripture again. That habit of encouraging others? Maybe it’s time to use it more intentionally.

Opportunities are the places where God is already working—you just get to join in. Sometimes they’re small: having coffee with someone who needs encouragement. Sometimes they’re bigger: healing old wounds, returning to community, rediscovering your purpose.

The ironic thing about spiritual opportunities is that they can show up disguised as interruptions or inconveniences. God rarely rings the doorbell with a clipboard and a step-by-step brochure. More often, He whispers, and waits to see if we’re listening.

Threats

And then there are threats. Not in the Hollywood sense—no flaming sword or thunder clap—but the subtle things that chip away at the soul. Busyness. Distraction. Comparison. Hurt that never got processed. Anger we nursed like a wounded animal. Threats are the forces that dry up spiritual soil if left unchecked.

Every age has its own unique threats. Our grandparents worried about war and ration books. We wrestle with disconnection, information overload, and the constant pressure to perform. The threats are different, but the solution is the same: intentional faith.

When we name the threats, we stop letting them work in secret.

A spiritual SWOT analysis also reminds us that faith is not meant to be automated. We live in a culture that wants everything done faster and easier. Two clicks to order groceries. One swipe for a date. A thousand videos at our fingertips. It is no wonder many people expect spiritual growth to happen on its own. But faith does not work like push notifications. Faith grows when we pay attention. It grows when we show up. It grows when we choose to participate rather than drift.

The SWOT framework gives us a chance to hit pause and ask some honest questions. What habits feed my spirit? Which ones drain it? Who are the people who strengthen me? Who are the ones that leave my shoulders up by my ears? Sometimes the opportunity in front of us is as simple as changing who we spend our time with or what we let into our minds. The old saying is true: you become what you consume, whether that is Scripture or cable news.

Another part of this is remembering that threats are not always dramatic. Sometimes they are quiet and polite. A little over-working here. A little bitterness there. Before you know it, prayer feels distant and worship feels like a chore. Threats creep in slowly, like weeds in a garden. You don’t notice them at first. Then one day they’re taller than the tomatoes. That is why awareness matters.

Opportunities are often the opposite. They tend to whisper. They show up in the nudge to reach out to an old friend. The tug to get back involved in church. The conviction to forgive someone who never apologized. The urge to actually rest on the Sabbath instead of rearranging the garage. Opportunities rarely show up with confetti cannons. They usually slide in quietly and wait to be noticed.

When you step back and look at it all, a spiritual SWOT analysis is really a prayer disguised as a chart. It invites gratitude for strengths, confession for weaknesses, discernment for opportunities, and protection from threats. It isn’t flashy. It isn’t academic. It’s practical, and God works just fine through practical things. Jesus used fish, bread, dirt, and fishermen. He seems comfortable with the everyday tools of life.

The bonus of doing this kind of reflection is that it opens the door for spiritual disciplines to take root again. Disciplines like silence, Scripture, worship, service, sabbath, and accountability all begin with noticing. Once you notice, you can tend. Once you tend, you can grow. It isn’t complicated. It just takes intention.

If you give this process a chance, you may be surprised by what surfaces. You might rediscover gratitude where you thought there was frustration. You might spot resilience where you only saw weakness. You might notice God nudging you through the very things that felt inconvenient last week. There is something strangely comforting about that. God has always been in the business of using ordinary things for extraordinary purposes.

At the end of the day, doing a spiritual SWOT analysis isn’t about proving how holy you are. It’s about being honest with God and yourself. Honesty is fertile soil. When you plant seeds in fertile soil, good things eventually grow—even if it takes a season or two.

And that brings us back to perspective. Faith stretches, shrinks, bends, questions, wrestles, rejoices, and rebuilds. The spiritual life isn’t fragile. It’s resilient. It just needs a little attention now and then. Tools like SWOT help us pay that attention.

Faith is a long road, and most of us are learning as we go. If your map is wrinkled, if your notes are messy, and if your SWOT has more scribbles than structure, congratulations. You’re doing it right.

And that really is a matter of perspective.