Making answered prayer a habit 

By Sammy Jordan and Richard Gamble
How can we make prayer a habit? What might prompt us to pray and what are the rewards that ‘feed’ a prayer habit? Sammy and Richard Gamble, the founder of The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, explore whether answered prayer can help create a habit of prayer, which feeds faith and hope in the one who delights to answer our prayers.
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Do you have any habits? Some habits are good like washing our hands and wearing facemasks. Some…maybe less so. For me it’s sugar in tea and sugar generally…I have a sweet tooth!

A habit is something we do regularly and perhaps find it hard not to do. Habits have a cue: something that prompts us to do them, and a reward: how we feel when we do them, which reinforces the action making us want to do it again and…you have a habit! For my husband coming into the kitchen is a cue to open the cupboard for a handful of Stackers (Aldi Pringles) to munch on as he waits for the kettle to boil. The reward is the savoury taste that fills your mouth and satisfies the munchies, for a short time at least.
Can we make prayer a habit and can idea of a cue and a reward can help us?  I wonder if, like me, you have regular places or times to pray? Cues that prompt you to pray? For me it’s getting into a car, the shower, the kettle boiling (no crisps). I’d love our phones to be a prompt, a cue to pray so that whenever we have them in our hands we pray for where we are and pin a prayer on the OIKOS prayer app. Hope for Every Home : The Prayer App

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We’d love to pray for every street, every road, every lane in the UK this year as part of Prayer Walk 21 but to do that we need to mobilise people to pray and to make prayer a habit. So that whenever we step outside, whenever we get out our phones, we are prompted to pray. If the phone is the cue, what’s the reward? I think the reward is answers to prayer. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of answers to prayer because life is busy and moves on. I wonder if I need to be more intentional about noticing answers to prayer. As I use my OIKOS app what am I praying for my neighbours and the streets where I live? Can I pray specifically, regularly and habitually for them?

Answered prayer can be even more rewarding. It can become a brick in a wall, The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer www.eternalwall.org.uk. Richard Gamble the founder tells us more:

Richard Gamble

“Eternal Wall is a colossal piece of public art built of one million bricks. Every single brick will represent an answered prayer. These stories will make hope visible to everyone who visits this Christian landmark.

“Visible from six miles away, the 169ft infinity loop will be 2.5 times the size of the Angel of the North. As visitors draw near, they will witness the scale of one million bricks, each linked to a story declaring the goodness of the God who answers. However, we believe that God is more interested in our journey towards an answered prayer than the answer itself, and we aim to guide people on this journey. Whether the answer was a ‘yes’, a ‘no’, or a ‘wait’, we want to share a plethora of different experiences of prayer, so every visitor can find a story to relate to.

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“The million stories of hope will be accessible on a bespoke app when visiting the landmark, as well as online in the world’s largest database of answered prayers. By sharing these answered prayers, Eternal Wall aims to:

  • Ignite a faith for prayer on a national level
  • Reveal Christ to the nation
  • Preserve stories from our Christian heritage 

“We will be donating one million bricks to social housing projects, which will build approximately 100 homes, and ongoing profits from the landmark will be fed back into UK charities. We will also be planting 162,000 trees to offset the landmark’s carbon footprint.

“Standing for hundreds of years, Eternal Wall will make hope visible through one million people’s stories, told for generations to come. After all, there is power in answered prayer. Psalm 77 demonstrates the impact of remembering what the Lord has done. Deep in hopeless depression, the psalmist meditates on God’s mighty deeds. Despair turns to hope as the miracles of the past reignite the faith of the present. By recalling what God has done for us and for others, faith is restored, joy is uncovered, and our hearts turn from despair to praise. Every encounter with the King of Heaven is a gift to be treasured and shared. As told in Deuteronomy 4:9, it is our duty to proclaim God’s deeds to the generations, and we aim to do just that.
“How can you be part of it? We love how in Nehemiah each person took responsibility for rebuilding a portion of the wall. Everyone did their part. We’ve created the canvas, but only you can paint the picture. Could you be a part of history and help us make hope visible? Head to www.crowdfunder.co.uk/eternalwall  to get involved.”

So, when you spot an answer to prayer, post it on www.eternalwall.org.uk/testimony
 and it will become a brick in what will become a huge monument to answered prayer. Feed the prayer habit!