Growing in Prayer: Five Simple Practices
Ben Sansburn
(The following article was adapted from the first sermon in our series Prayer in Four Dimensions - "Upward: Intimacy & Awe").
When we talk about growing in communion with God through prayer, it’s easy to feel like we have to do something big. We make grand plans. We consider radical overhauls. We set our alarm early, imagining long stretches of uninterrupted devotion. And while those desires are often sincere, they can also become the very thing that keeps us from actually praying.
Instead, if we want real change, real growth, here are five simple practices to consider:
1. Start Small.
Many of us want spiritual growth to be epic. “Tomorrow I’ll wake up at 4:30 am and pray for two and a half hours!” But for most of us, that kind of plan lasts about a day.
Instead, what about starting with five minutes?
Seriously. What if each day began with just five minutes set aside to come to your Father—to praise him, re-center your heart, and lift your eyes upward before they’re pulled in a hundred other directions? Over time, that kind of faithfulness shapes us more deeply than a burst of intensity ever could.
If five minutes is already part of your rhythm, what might it look like to grow to ten? Or fifteen? Or twenty? The goal isn’t perfection—it’s consistency. Start small. God delights to use it.
2. Let the Psalms Shape Your Prayers
One reason prayer often feels hard is simply this: we don’t know what to say.
The Psalms are a gift here. God has given us 150 prayers—words formed by faith, suffering, joy, doubt, repentance, and hope. You don’t have to invent something new every morning. You’re invited to step into a long tradition of God’s people learning how to speak to him.
In our day and age, we often feel the need for everything to be spontaneous, authentic, and heartfelt in the moment - or we assume it isn’t “real”. But Christians throughout history have known that borrowed words can become deeply personal words. The Psalms train our hearts and give language to what we’re feeling, even when we can’t yet name it ourselves.
Try this: during that five-minute window, open a Psalm. Read it slowly. Then turn what you read upward in prayer.
3. Connect What You Ask to What You Know
Another helpful practice is learning to anchor your requests in who God is. Before you ask God for anything, name something that’s true about him. When we do this, God’s character begins to shape not only what we ask for, but how we ask.
Here’s what that can sound like in practice:
“Father, I know your heart—that you desire that none would perish, but that all would come to know you. I know you so loved the world that you gave your only Son. I know your Spirit brings life where there is death. So would you do what only you can do? Would you work in this person’s heart even now?”
Let what you know of God guide what you ask from God.
4. Remember: Your Prayer Life Is Your Life
Prayer isn’t limited to a quiet room and a cup of coffee. Communion with God happens in ordinary moments—on the drive to work, in the classroom, on the court, between meetings, in the middle of a busy afternoon.
At the word Father, you are welcomed into the throne room.
One simple way to cultivate this kind of awareness is to build reminders into your day. We all carry phones in our pockets—why not let them serve this purpose? Set a daily alarm. Or two. Or three. When it goes off, pause for even a minute or two. Pray the Lord’s Prayer. Or simply say, “Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Let your heart re-orient upward.
5. Don’t Go It Alone
Finally, remember this: Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father,” not “My Father.” Prayer is deeply personal, but it’s never meant to be solitary. The more you can pray with others, the more it will spur on your own personal prayer life.
Make it a habit not just to promise to pray for someone, but to actually pray for them - right then and there. Allow your conversations with other Christians to flow naturally into prayer as you talk about things that are joyful, hard, uncertain, or frustrating. Let conversation with others extend into conversation with your heavenly Father - together.
We’re better together. And our prayer lives are better together.
So start small. Pray upward. And trust that as you seek communion with God, he will meet you there.
When we talk about growing in communion with God through prayer, it’s easy to feel like we have to do something big. We make grand plans. We consider radical overhauls. We set our alarm early, imagining long stretches of uninterrupted devotion. And while those desires are often sincere, they can also become the very thing that keeps us from actually praying.
Instead, if we want real change, real growth, here are five simple practices to consider:
1. Start Small.
Many of us want spiritual growth to be epic. “Tomorrow I’ll wake up at 4:30 am and pray for two and a half hours!” But for most of us, that kind of plan lasts about a day.
Instead, what about starting with five minutes?
Seriously. What if each day began with just five minutes set aside to come to your Father—to praise him, re-center your heart, and lift your eyes upward before they’re pulled in a hundred other directions? Over time, that kind of faithfulness shapes us more deeply than a burst of intensity ever could.
If five minutes is already part of your rhythm, what might it look like to grow to ten? Or fifteen? Or twenty? The goal isn’t perfection—it’s consistency. Start small. God delights to use it.
2. Let the Psalms Shape Your Prayers
One reason prayer often feels hard is simply this: we don’t know what to say.
The Psalms are a gift here. God has given us 150 prayers—words formed by faith, suffering, joy, doubt, repentance, and hope. You don’t have to invent something new every morning. You’re invited to step into a long tradition of God’s people learning how to speak to him.
In our day and age, we often feel the need for everything to be spontaneous, authentic, and heartfelt in the moment - or we assume it isn’t “real”. But Christians throughout history have known that borrowed words can become deeply personal words. The Psalms train our hearts and give language to what we’re feeling, even when we can’t yet name it ourselves.
Try this: during that five-minute window, open a Psalm. Read it slowly. Then turn what you read upward in prayer.
3. Connect What You Ask to What You Know
Another helpful practice is learning to anchor your requests in who God is. Before you ask God for anything, name something that’s true about him. When we do this, God’s character begins to shape not only what we ask for, but how we ask.
Here’s what that can sound like in practice:
“Father, I know your heart—that you desire that none would perish, but that all would come to know you. I know you so loved the world that you gave your only Son. I know your Spirit brings life where there is death. So would you do what only you can do? Would you work in this person’s heart even now?”
Let what you know of God guide what you ask from God.
4. Remember: Your Prayer Life Is Your Life
Prayer isn’t limited to a quiet room and a cup of coffee. Communion with God happens in ordinary moments—on the drive to work, in the classroom, on the court, between meetings, in the middle of a busy afternoon.
At the word Father, you are welcomed into the throne room.
One simple way to cultivate this kind of awareness is to build reminders into your day. We all carry phones in our pockets—why not let them serve this purpose? Set a daily alarm. Or two. Or three. When it goes off, pause for even a minute or two. Pray the Lord’s Prayer. Or simply say, “Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Let your heart re-orient upward.
5. Don’t Go It Alone
Finally, remember this: Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father,” not “My Father.” Prayer is deeply personal, but it’s never meant to be solitary. The more you can pray with others, the more it will spur on your own personal prayer life.
Make it a habit not just to promise to pray for someone, but to actually pray for them - right then and there. Allow your conversations with other Christians to flow naturally into prayer as you talk about things that are joyful, hard, uncertain, or frustrating. Let conversation with others extend into conversation with your heavenly Father - together.
We’re better together. And our prayer lives are better together.
So start small. Pray upward. And trust that as you seek communion with God, he will meet you there.