To grow closer to God, build small daily habits around Scripture, prayer, honesty, and service. Read the Bible on purpose, pray without polishing your words, confess what's actually true, and show up for other believers. Closeness with God grows through repetition, not a single breakthrough moment.
Nine years ago I asked our associate pastor, Ray Whitfield, why my faith felt flat even though I read my Bible almost every day. He didn't tell me to try harder. He asked what I did with what I read. I didn't have an answer. That conversation changed how I think about how to grow closer to God: it isn't about adding more religious activity, it's about paying attention to what you already do and letting it actually reach your life.
Closeness with God is relational, and relationships grow through repeated, ordinary contact, not a single dramatic moment. Below are ten habits that have held up for me and for people I've walked with at Pleasant-View Baptist over the past several years. None of them are complicated. All of them take longer than a week to show results.
Start With Scripture, Not a Feeling
Most people wait to feel spiritually motivated before they open their Bible. That's backward. In my experience, the feeling tends to follow the reading, not the other way around. Pick a book of the Bible, not a random verse generator, and read it in order. I started with the Gospel of John over a summer, about ten to fifteen verses a night, and finished it in eleven weeks.
You don't need a seminary background to read well. Ask three questions of any passage: What did this mean to the people who first heard it? What does it tell me about God's character? What is one specific thing I should do because of it? Write your answers down. A sentence is enough.
Make Prayer Honest Before You Make It Long
For years I prayed in a kind of church voice, full of phrases that sounded right but weren't really mine. A woman in our Tuesday morning prayer group, Carol, once prayed out loud, "God, I'm tired of asking You for things and I don't know if that's allowed." Nobody flinched. That's the kind of honesty Scripture actually models. Read Psalm 13 if you doubt that.
Short, honest prayers do more for your closeness with God than long, polished ones. Try this: pray for five minutes using only your own words, no borrowed phrases. Say what's actually true, including the doubts.
Closeness with God grows through repetition, not a single breakthrough moment.
Build a Rhythm You Can Actually Keep
According to Barna Group research on Bible engagement, most Americans who own a Bible read it only a few times a year, usually because the habit collapses under an unrealistic plan. I've watched the same thing happen inside our own congregation. People commit to an hour a day in January and quit by February.
Pick a rhythm you'll still be doing in six months. That might be:
- Ten minutes before your first cup of coffee
- Fifteen minutes during a lunch break, away from your phone
- A short devotional and one prayer request before bed
Consistency beats intensity. A ten-minute habit you keep for a year will shape you more than a sixty-minute habit you keep for nine days.
Confess What Is True, Not What Sounds Good
Confession gets treated as an old-fashioned word, but it's one of the more practical habits on this list. Naming a specific failure, not a vague one, clears something out of the way between you and God. "I lost my temper with my son on Tuesday and I haven't apologized" does more than "I struggle with anger sometimes."
I keep a short list in a notebook, not for guilt, but so I stop carrying the same unnamed thing for months. Confession followed by a specific next step, an apology, a phone call, a changed habit, moves faith from theory into practice.
A Simple Confession Habit
Once a week, write down one thing you did or said that you know was wrong. Name it plainly. Then write one action you'll take because of it. That's the whole practice.
Serve Someone Specific
Vague generosity is easy to admire and easy to skip. Specific service is harder to avoid. Our church runs a meal train for families after a hospital stay or a death, and I've noticed something every time I've signed up: the drive to drop off a casserole almost always includes a prayer I wouldn't have prayed otherwise. Service has a way of pulling your attention off yourself and onto God's presence in someone else's hard week.
You don't need a formal ministry role. Pick one person this month, a neighbor, a coworker, someone from your small group, and do one concrete, useful thing for them.
Stay Connected to a Church Body
Growing closer to God rarely happens in isolation, even though a lot of devotional writing talks as if it does. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells believers not to give up meeting together, and there's a reason that instruction shows up right next to a call to spur one another toward love. I've had seasons where a single conversation after a Sunday service did more for my faith than a month of solitary devotions. Community catches what private habits miss.
Find a small group, a Sunday school class, or even one or two people you talk with regularly about your faith. Related reading on this: see our guide on church life and membership and our article on finding a mentor at your church.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to feel closer to God?
There's no fixed timeline, and Scripture doesn't promise one. Most people notice a shift after a few months of consistent habits, not a single week. Focus on the practice, not a feeling schedule.
What if I keep missing days in my Bible reading plan?
Restart without guilt. A missed day doesn't erase the habit. Pick the plan back up where you are, not where you think you should be, and keep the rhythm realistic enough to sustain.
Is it normal to feel spiritually dry sometimes?
Yes. Many respected figures throughout church history, including the Psalmists themselves, wrote honestly about feeling distant from God. Dryness is common and doesn't mean you've done something wrong.
Do I need to do all ten habits at once?
No. Pick one or two, practice them until they're steady, then add another. Trying to overhaul your entire spiritual life in a single week usually backfires.
The Bottom Line
If you want to know how to grow closer to God, start smaller than you think you need to. Pick one habit from this list, Scripture reading, honest prayer, weekly confession, and keep it for a month before adding another. Closeness with God is built the same way any relationship is built: through ordinary, repeated attention over time. This week, choose one habit above and do it three times before Sunday.