Most believers do not struggle with wanting to know God better. They struggle with making it happen consistently in the middle of real, busy, demanding life. Work, responsibilities, and the constant pull of screens and noise make it easy for time with God to keep getting pushed to later, and later, until it barely happens at all.
But here is the truth: spending more time with God does not require a perfect schedule or hours of free time. It requires intentionality. Small, consistent choices made daily add up to a deeply rooted walk with God over time.
Here are 12 practical ways to start building more of Him into your everyday life.
1. Start Your Morning with Prayer Before Anything Else
Before you check your phone, scroll through notifications, or let the demands of the day rush in, give God the very first moment. Even five minutes of honest, simple conversation with Him before anything else sets the tone for everything that follows.
The practical step is straightforward: keep your phone out of reach until you have prayed. It does not have to be long or structured. It can be as simple as thanking God for the day, asking for guidance, and acknowledging that you need Him. The goal is to make Him the first voice you tune into every morning rather than the last.
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” — Psalm 5:3 (NIV)
2. Create a Dedicated Bible Reading Plan
Opening the Bible without a plan can quickly lead to aimless flipping, a few verses, and then closing it without any real sense of direction. A reading plan removes the guesswork entirely and gives your time in the Word structure, consistency, and forward momentum.
There are reading plans for every season and schedule. Some take you through the entire Bible in a year. Others focus on a single book, a specific topic, or a particular area of growth. Apps like YouVersion make it easy to find one that fits your pace and stick to it. The goal is not to read as much as possible. It is to read consistently and actually absorb what you are taking in.
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” — Psalm 119:105 (NIV)
Related Read: How to Start Reading the Bible: A Life-Changing Guide for Beginners
3. Use Your Commute for Worship or Sermons
The time spent driving, walking, or sitting on public transport is some of the most underused time in a believer’s day. Instead of filling it with music that leaves you empty or scrolling that leaves you distracted, use it intentionally for God.
Play a sermon from a pastor who feeds your faith. Put on a worship playlist and let it shift your atmosphere before you walk into your day. Listen to a Bible audio plan on your way home to decompress and refocus. The commute does not change but what fills it can change everything about how you show up spiritually throughout the day.
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly.” — Colossians 3:16 (NIV)
4. Keep a Prayer Journal
Spoken prayer is powerful but written prayer does something different. It slows you down, forces you to articulate what you are actually feeling, and creates a record of your conversations with God that you can look back on over time.
Start simple. Date each entry, write out what you are grateful for, what you are asking God for, and anything you feel He has been speaking to you. Over weeks and months that journal becomes one of the most faith building tools you own. There is nothing quite like flipping back through old entries and seeing how many prayers God has already answered.
“I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.” — Psalm 143:5 (NIV)
Related Read: 10 Bible Journaling Prompts to Deepen Your Faith and Draw Closer to God
5. Set Prayer Reminders Throughout the Day
One long prayer session in the morning is valuable but staying connected to God throughout the entire day is what a truly prayerful life looks like. The problem is that without reminders, hours can pass without a single thought toward Him.
Set two or three alarms on your phone at different points in the day labeled simply as prayer reminders. When they go off, stop for sixty seconds. Thank God for something. Ask Him for help with whatever is in front of you. Check in. It does not need to be elaborate. The goal is to cultivate an ongoing awareness of God’s presence throughout your day rather than confining Him to a single slot in your morning routine.
“Pray continually.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV)
6. Replace Background Noise with Worship Music
Most people have some form of background noise running constantly, the television, a podcast, random playlists. That noise shapes your mood, your thoughts, and the overall atmosphere of your space more than you realize.
Try replacing it with worship music. Not as a performance or a ritual but as a simple, practical way to keep your heart oriented toward God while you cook, clean, work, or wind down. Over time you will notice a shift in the atmosphere of your home and in the default posture of your heart. What fills your environment has a quiet but consistent influence on what fills your mind.
“Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” — Ephesians 5:19 (NIV)
7. Practice Gratitude as a Daily Spiritual Discipline
Gratitude is not just a positive thinking exercise. It is a spiritual discipline that trains your eyes to recognize God’s hand in the details of everyday life. When you make a habit of actively looking for what He has done, your awareness of His presence grows naturally.
At the end of each day write down three things you are grateful for and connect them specifically to God. Not just “I am grateful for my health” but “God, thank you for the strength you gave me today.” That specificity turns gratitude from a general feeling into an active conversation with Him. Over time it rewires the way you move through your day, making you more attentive and more responsive to everything He is doing around you.
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
8. Memorize One Scripture at a Time
Carrying God’s Word in your heart means it is available to you in every moment, not just when you have your Bible open. Scripture memorization sounds intimidating but it does not have to be. The key is to focus on one verse at a time and give it enough repetition to stick.
Write the verse on a sticky note and put it somewhere you look every day. Your bathroom mirror, your desk, your phone wallpaper. Read it out loud every time you see it. Within a week it will be a permanent part of you. That verse then becomes something the Holy Spirit can bring back to your mind exactly when you need it most, in moments of fear, temptation, or doubt.
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” — Psalm 119:11 (NIV)
9. Fast Regularly
Fasting is one of the most powerful and most underutilized spiritual disciplines available to a believer. At its core it is the intentional removal of a physical comfort, most commonly food, in order to create focused space for prayer and time with God.
You do not have to start with a full day fast. Begin with skipping one meal and using that time to pray instead. As you grow more comfortable with it extend the duration. Fasting sharpens your spiritual sensitivity in a way that is difficult to explain until you experience it. It is a physical declaration that your hunger for God is greater than your hunger for anything else, and God honors that posture in a significant way.
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do…But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen.” — Matthew 6:16-18 (NIV)
10. Find a Church Community and Show Up Consistently
Your personal walk with God was never meant to happen in isolation. The local church exists as a place of corporate worship, teaching, accountability, and community, and showing up consistently to one matters more than most people realize.
If you do not have a church home, make finding one a priority. Look for a community where the Word of God is taught clearly, where you feel genuinely welcomed, and where you can build real relationships over time. If you already have one, commit to showing up even on the Sundays when you do not feel like it. Consistency in community is one of the most practical ways to stay spiritually grounded and keep growing.
“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” — Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)
11. Read Devotionals
Devotionals are short, focused pieces of spiritual content built around a Scripture, a theme, or a specific area of faith. They are one of the most accessible ways to get into God’s Word consistently, especially in seasons where time is tight and long Bible study sessions are not realistic.
Find a devotional that speaks to where you are right now, whether that is a general daily devotional, one focused on faith, one written specifically for women, or one that walks through a particular book of the Bible. Read it with your morning coffee, during your lunch break, or before bed. The goal is not volume. It is consistency and genuine reflection on what you are reading.
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” — Psalm 1:1-2 (NIV)
Also, Read: Devotional for Busy Women: Trusting God for Balance
12. End Your Day with Reflection and Gratitude
Just as you opened your day in God’s presence, close it the same way. Before you sleep, take a few minutes to reflect on the day, acknowledge where you saw God at work, confess anything that needs to be brought before Him, and thank Him for carrying you through.
This practice does two things. It closes the day with your heart oriented toward God rather than toward the stress and noise of everything that happened. And it trains you over time to look for God actively throughout your day because you know you will be reflecting on where He showed up before you sleep. It is a simple habit with a quietly profound effect on the overall posture of your faith.
“I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.” — Psalm 16:7 (NIV)
A Final Word
Spending more time with God does not require a dramatic overhaul of your entire life. It requires small, intentional choices made consistently over time. One morning prayer. One chapter. One worship song on the commute. One journal entry before bed. These things compound quietly and over time they produce a walk with God that is deep, stable and genuinely life changing.
You do not have to implement all twelve of these at once. Pick two or three that feel most accessible to where you are right now and start there. Build the habit before you add more. What matters is not how many boxes you check but whether you are genuinely showing up and giving God space to meet you.
He is not looking for perfection. He is looking for presence.
Start today. Even small is enough.