The altar

In Genesis 12, God calls Abram and asks him to leave his country, his family and his father’s house; and go somewhere where he will show him. This begins Abram’s nomadic journey and existence. He finds himself wandering around, building altars to God in Bethel; meandering to Egypt when a famine began. He had hoped to stay there for a while, but was booted out when it was discovered that Sarai was actually his wife and not his sister as he had earlier said. And so what does he do again? He goes to the altar. He makes sacrifice.

There are a lot of answers to what we experience in life at the altar. The altar is a place of comfort, encounter, revelation, power, and answers given by God. Abram knew that he had to totally rely on God to be successful; in fact God had told Abram that the land He would give him was a land that He will show Him. So Abram did not really know where he was going. God was the GPS. He has to totally rely. He needed the altar. And he knew it.

We need an altar; it is a shame we do not know how much we need it at times. We feel like we can figure this out; yes, work it out by ourselves. But we can’t. We don’t know more than God. And so I love the altar. I love the place of the altar. I love going there; that quiet place and time. In Genesis 12 & 13 Abram went to that place three times. In the space of this journey, Abram had sought refuge and food and respite in Egypt. He had been separated from his family member Lot due to strife. And so where else do you go when you need answers, when you need specifics, when you need peace?

Do you have an altar relationship with God? How often do you go there? What does it do to you when you go there? What does it do when you rise from there? You really shouldn’t be the same. You should have been overwhelmed by His love, peace and presence by the time you rise. Amen.

Linda Faith
Linda faith is the Editor in Chief of Jewels Magazine. She has authored eight books. She is a prolific writer and powerful speaker, inspiring many women to be all God has called them to be. She is the founder of Joy Women’s conference which reaches out to empower, inspire and motivate women in their faith walk. She was a software developer before she started writing.