Engage 2026 is a national prayer initiative calling every believer to commit to praying for those who do not yet know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Over time, our prayer is that this initiative will continue to deepen our understanding that prayer and mission are inseparable, and that every believer takes personal responsibility to pray for those around them.
During this year of prayer, we are inviting ministers to share experiences from their churches which may help and encourage other congregations. Rev Ali Sewell, of Haddington Community Church, has shared about Gospel Habits.
By Rev Ali Sewell
As anyone trying to look at their phone less, stop biting their nails, or start getting up earlier in the morning can tell you: habits are powerful things! We often think of the challenge of breaking bad habits, but we can also greatly benefit from building up good habits.
And what is true in terms of hygiene (brushing your teeth), productivity (turning your phone off), and health (getting regular exercise), is also true spiritually – seeking to build up regular habits and patterns of behaviour which help us in our daily Christian lives.
We’ve tried to encourage this corporately at Haddington Community Church with ‘Gospel Habits’ – each month speaking about a new habit to encourage people to try, and hopefully continue after the month ends! Whether speaking to new people on a Sunday, preparing for a service by reading the passage in advance, or having a daily Bible reading plan – these are hopefully all fairly small and easy to introduce steps, but which would make a huge change if a whole congregation adopted and encouraged each other in.
When launching these Gospel Habits last September, as is so often a good starting place, we began with prayer! Encouraging the congregation to start and end each day with prayer however brief. That reminding ourselves of our relationship with God, and his loving acceptance of us through Jesus, would be the truth that frames our waking hours. (It’s worth mentioning here that like most things at church this wasn’t an original idea, but was shaped by a helpful chapter on prayer in ‘The Common Rule’ by Justin Whitmel Earley, who also addresses the who concept of habits in the Christian life.)
Obviously this habit of prayer, like the other monthly habits we’ve covered, is something many people in our congregation are already engaged in – this is a great chance to affirm their ongoing faithfulness in this area of life. While for those for whom this isn’t such a regular pattern it hopefully giving a specific and achievable ‘on ramp’ to help them build daily prayer into their regular habits, and allow it to shape their thinking.
In joining with Engage2026 as a church, this regular habit of prayer also gives us a great basis to include praying for others daily – that God would bring more people to see and respond to his love shown in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that as we begin and end each day reminding ourselves of his grace to us, we would be encouraged to share that message of grace with those we are praying for, as God gives us opportunities and in his wisdom works through us.
In all of these habits we need to remember they are a response to God’s love, and not to earn it. They are habits to grow a relationship with Christ, and help others to do the same – but that relationship is only possible through the gospel. And that’s the same gospel that we want those who don’t yet know Jesus to know, so they too can be brought into relationship with him – and so we pray!