How to Build an Effective Prayer Altar

Many times when people hear the phrase "prayer altar", it is likely that you picture a pulpit or some sacred place dedicated only to prayers. As good as that sounds, prayer altars are not necessarily a physical place, but a consecrated heart dedicated to a life of prayer.

Altars are a part of church where in some cases, only the priests are allowed to step there for prayers and other religious acts like offering burnt offering to God. But having known that our body is the temple of God (1 Cor 6:19) and we are a royal priesthood, hence, your altar is within you. Of course, our body is a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him. Romans 12:1

 

 

There is a mix of feelings that comes when devoted Christians realize that they find it difficult to pray. It is a mix of  the feeling of anxiety, fear, guiltiness, powerlessness, anger, disappointment, restlessness and sometimes, backsliding. Religion has taught us so much about prayer from the power of prayer to the importance of prayers and even given us many reasons why we should pray. While these are necessary, it is important to learn the art of maintaining our prayer lives and that's the point where building a prayer altar comes to life.

 

 

In this day an time, it is more than necessary to lay emphasis on building an active prayer altar and maintaining one's prayer life. On the surface, many believers appear beautiful and shining, yet without active prayer lives. This is because the devil has made it a difficult struggle for both young and old to maintain active prayer lives. He did this by simply planting random distractions, especially for believers whose work give little or no time at all.

 

Read: Does Praying Aloud Constitute Nuisance?

 

There are many ways to ensure that we build up our prayer lives and ensure that it stays burning. Prayer is an important weapon of a believer in Christ and the Bible lays emphasis on it, telling us in 1st Thessalonians 5:16  to we should pray without ceasing. Anytime you read that verse, your likely question is this - How can I build an active prayer altar in this world of busyness?


Every shift in a man's life is reared on an altar. The positive changes, growth and progress that you see in the life of a believer is a result of an encounter that is birthed in the secret place. In Psalm 91:1, the Bible assures that anyone who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. The secret place is a place where we communicate with God and that communication with God can not be done without prayer. Dwelling is also different from paying a visit whenever you deem fit and this makes us understand that prayer is not bound by a certain time, posture, place or even audibility. Prayers must be from the heart.

Read: 6 Types of Nigerian Christians You Would find on a Bus

 

Also, man was not designed to struggle unnecessarily and so, to change any situation, you must take it and make a vital contact with God's grace upon the altar of prayer. With this understanding of prayer, how then can you build a life of consistent prayer? How can you build your active prayer altar in this busy world?

Prayer is popularly defined as the communication between God and man. This means that there is a constant interaction on the altar and depending on how often do you pray (whether once a day, week, or once a month), you put yourself in God's presence, where you feel at peace and ask Him to do something in the name of Jesus. However, it is not enough to have an altar within you, but to keep the fire burning at all time as mentioned in Leviticus 6:13. Fire signifies the presence of God, and the presence of God is summoned through prayers. Having known all these, how then do you build a prayer altar? Here are a few ways to help you build an effective prayer altar.

1. Genuinely Love God

You cannot pray outside loving God. Your genuine love for God is one that drives you into consistent communication with him. Have you ever seen two beautiful lovers always talking and chatting then you wonder what they always have to talk about? If you have, then that is a near perfect explanation of the genuine love you must have for God before building an active prayer altar. For every Effective Prayer, you must understand that God must first be your father before you can truly pray to Him. It is also important to note that no man can be empty of a spirit. Prayer is beyond your request being met. It is meant for communion and fellowship 

2. Be Determined and Intentional

Your mind dictates so many things and you really have to be intentional about building your prayer life. Once you get intentional, you'd begin to put structures in place to ensure that the distraction of the enemy does not stop you from praying consistently.

3. Have an Accountability Partner

To effectively build a prayer altar, you need an accountability partner to whom you will be accountable to on how you've improve in your prayer life and be honest with your accountability.

4. Have a Prayer Partner

A prayer partner may not necessarily be your accountability partner but they are people who can help you fire up your prayer altar. You simply need to fix a time you will pray together so when your prayer life goes down  he/she will help you up.

5. Avoid Distraction

If you are serious about building an active prayer altar, it is necessary for you to stay away from the things that take more of your time and attention

6. Hunger and Thirst for God

As a believer, you must be genuinely hungry for the things of God to build a prayer altar. Your hunger and thirst for God will definitely push you into staying more in the presence of God.

7. See the Big Future

To build an effective prayer altar, you should also think about the generations that are waiting for your manifestation. When you do that and, you will be determined not to fail them

8. Prioritize Prayer 

Let prayer be very important to you and see it as something you can't survive without. When you put prayer as a top priority, you will see drastic changes in your life.

9. Study God's Word

No true prayer life can be active and effective without the word of God. A good study of the world of God will help you create a balance as you grow in your spiritual life. Whenever you want to study God's word, prayerfully ask for His revelation power to be made manifest and that way, the scriptures come alive. You would definitely needs fuel to keep the fire burning, right? Feeding on the word of God constantly is the fuel needed for the fire on your altar. It is important that you made plans ahead. Reading the word of God and other God-inspired books aids the building of your prayer altar (Joshua 1:8)

1. Live a Consecrated Life

The first step to building an effective prayer altar is  living a consecrated and holy life. You are trying to build an altar within you. Enough to house God. Then it is necessary that you keep it as holy and undefiled as possible by filtering what you take in through your eyes and ear, which would affect what comes out and as such could defile you. Mark 7:15

3. Pray without Ceasing

What is a prayer altar without prayer? Praying without ceasing is a way of building an altar itself(1Thess 5:16, NLT). Praying in the spirit, with your heart aligning with God constantly would train your body soul and spirit become tuned and used to the action. 

4. Dedicate Time to God

Another beautiful way to building a prayer altar is dedicating a particular time to pray to God. Say due to the nature of your work or you often have a busy day, it is best you choose a time when it's just you and God, and stick to it. Over time, there would be a way you would feel when you don't pray at the particular time you used to.

 

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Finally, a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian and a powerless christian is a prey to the devil so let your prayer life be a priority to you. A life of prayer can also be achieved by bearing the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Intentionally living the life of the Spirit by bearing its fruit would make us(our body which houses our altar) feel better enough to extend a loving hand to others, which could influence them into building a prayer altar for themselves, too.

For further reading, kindly see Matthew 6:5-9, Revelation 5:8