DUMC Stories
My Journey of Building a Prayer Altar by Annie Ng, PJN5
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.
“Why does it seem that I cannot trust God?”
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 27
