This short prayer is for anyone who wants to grow in faith but feels stuck, distracted, or unsure where to begin. Pray it when you wake up, before a hard day, or in the quiet minutes before bed. You can read it aloud exactly as written, or use it as a starting point and put your own words in where your heart needs them.
Short Prayer for My Spiritual Growth
Lord, I want to know you more than I want to be comfortable. Some days I feel close to you, and other days my prayers feel like they hit the ceiling and fall back down. I get busy, I get tired, and I let the things that matter most slide to the bottom of the list. Please meet me in those ordinary moments, even when I am not sure what I am doing right.
Shape my habits and my heart. Help me open your Word when I would rather scroll my phone, and help me actually listen when I read it. Teach me to pray honestly, without performing for you or for anyone else. Where I am proud, make me humble. Where I am afraid to change, give me courage. Where I have grown cynical, soften me again with your kindness.
Make me more like Jesus in the small things: in how I speak to my family, how I treat the person who annoys me, and how I spend my money and my time. Grow your fruit in me slowly and steadily, and let others see you in my life more than they see me. Amen.
A Shorter Version to Pray in a Moment
Lord, help me grow in you today. Open my eyes to what you are showing me, soften my heart where it has hardened, and give me the courage to obey the next small step you point to. Make me more like Jesus in my words and actions. Thank you that you are patient with me and that you are still working. Amen.
Scriptures to Pray Alongside
Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
(WEB)
Pray this verse by thanking God that the work he started in you is not finished yet. Ask him to keep working on you even when your progress feels slow or invisible.
Romans 12:2
Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
(WEB)
Use this verse to ask God to renew the way you think, so that your habits and choices start to match what you say you believe. Name one area where your thinking needs to change.
Psalm 1:2
But his delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.
(WEB)
Pray this verse for the desire to spend time in God’s Word, asking him to make it something you enjoy and return to rather than a duty you tick off.
2 Peter 3:18
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
(WEB)
Let this verse shape your prayer as a request to keep growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus, not just in the first days of faith but across the whole of your life.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
(WEB)
Pray through this list of fruit slowly, asking God to produce patience, kindness, and self-control in the specific relationships where you struggle most. Ask him to show you where to begin.
How to Pray This Prayer
Choose a consistent time, such as right after your coffee in the morning or during your commute, and sit in the same chair or spot each day. Keep a pen and notebook nearby so you can write down anything God brings to mind while you pray, and come back to those notes later in the week.
Your hands can help your heart focus. Hold an open Bible, rest your palms face up in your lap, or hold a small object that reminds you of a fruit of the Spirit. If you have a friend or small group, ask them to pray this prayer for you on the days you feel least able to pray it yourself.
A Blessing to Close
May the Lord who began a good work in this heart keep working until the day of Christ Jesus. May he steady every step, deepen every longing for his Word, and let his peace guard your mind as you grow. The Lord bless you and keep you, and make his face shine upon you.
