My Journey of Building a Prayer Altar

Learning to develop a prayer altar can be a journey into intimacy with God.

It all started with one question, “Why does it seem that I cannot trust God?”. Even though I had been a Christian for more than 20 years and had been consistently attending celebrations and CG meetings, I still found it difficult to trust God completely whenever I had struggles in my life. There were a couple of times when my CG members told me to trust God, but these two words did not resonate in my heart. In the end, I would still solve my life problems with my own strength and stress myself a lot until my body broke down.

Then, as my CG started a series about the Importance of Building Prayer Altars, I learned a Prayer Altar was all about spending time with God and drawing on His Presence. It got me to read this book by John Mulinde and Mark Daniel entitled Prayer Altars: A Strategy That Is Changing Nations. Somehow, the Holy Spirit spoke to me – “Do you know why you have difficulty to trust God? It is because you do not know God personally. The only way you can know God is by spending time with Him.” It really convicted me. Therefore, I embarked on my journey of establishing my Prayer Altar.

I started my first Personal Prayer Altar on 6 April 2020. The best time to start a Prayer Altar was during this MCO period as I had more time.  Mark Daniel recommends in his book to set aside at least one to two hours daily to create the spiritual atmosphere in your heart that will enable you to draw on God’s Presence. I started by reading God’s Word for 45 minutes to an hour, followed by worship and prayer.

Honestly, I was clueless and awkward when I started. I also wondered how I could ‘tahan’ two hours in Prayer Altar. It was not perfect, but I remembered Mark Daniel’s statement, “when you first begin to build an altar, you realize it is very difficult to come into the presence of God because the altar is in disrepair. Your inner being has not been tended to. There are discouragements, fears, insecurities, sins of the flesh and all kinds of other things that hinder the fire from building up inside you.” Just be persistent. So, I persistently came to the Prayer Altar every morning and gradually, I became more and more accustomed to the Prayer Altar routine.

As I began to know God deeper through His Word, I could feel God’s heart and amazingly, I could understand why God is God and Who He claims to be. He is really the Great ‘I AM’. Consequently, the praise and adoration just came naturally out from my heart that I had never felt before. I cried so many times and at the same time, I adored Him so much for His love for me, my family and nation as well as the whole human race.

I started to look forward every morning to seek His Presence but from Day 30 onwards, I felt there was resistance in my spirit. My heart felt so heavy, discouraged, and unmotivated. I was struggling to get up from my bed and was very reluctant to come to the Prayer Altar. I wanted to give up but then I remembered that if you give up halfway it is equal to you not starting at all, and all the effort I had put in, and the time I had spent all this while to build a Prayer Altar would come to nothing.  It is almost like giving the enemy a foothold of victory. Thus, I forced myself to wake up and continue to build my Prayer Altar.

Then during my CG session, I requested my CG members to pray for me that the fire in my heart would keep burning like the prayer altar during the time in the Old Testament, keep burning day and night, so that I could persevere to build and maintain my Prayer Altar. To my surprise, during the next few days I did not feel the heaviness in my heart anymore to come to the Prayer Altar and seek His face again. I really did feel the presence of God stronger day by day as I faithfully came to the Prayer Altar. My family members commented I have become calmer, more joyful, and more patient recently. I guess transformation really does take place at the Prayer Altar.

The journey to establish a Prayer Altar has not been easy. However, I do not want to give up until there is breakthrough in my relationship with God. I want to reach a level where I am able to trust God completely when He says, “Trust Me”.  

About Damansara Utama Methodist Church

Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) is widely respected as a church for all generations—an exciting community of families, senior citizens, young adults, teenagers, and young children, doing life together. Its primary purpose is to build passionate disciples of Jesus Christ, summed up in their tagline ‘Love God, Serve People, Make Disciples’. To find out more about them, visit their website at http://dumc.my/