When my older children were little we were at church one day and had a house fire. My neighbor at the time got the fire put out in the kitchen. We were able to salvage some things but much of the contents were badly smoke damaged. Obviously we could not live in the home. Our insurance paid for us to live in a hotel until new accommodations were made. We lived in this hotel for a month. It was in between our unlivable home and the church that we attended. It was a place of uncertainty in our lives.
Genesis 12:8 KJV And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
You see Abraham here traveling to where God was sending him. He stops in an interesting place. He stops with Bethel (which means the house of God) on one side in the west. And Hai or Ai (which means a heap of ruins) on the other in the east. It is here that Abraham built an altar and called on God.
We may find ourselves in this place in life. Where we have the house of God in one side and a heap of ruins on the other side. This heap of ruins may be life as we know it at the time. It is the situations that we find ourselves in. Our jobs, our relationships, our financial positions, our health. These can turn into or seem like a heap of ruins at times. We may go to church, experience God, feel God move, be blessed and then walk right back into our heap of ruins.
You see Abraham pitched his tent here. This means he lived here for a period of time. We may find ourselves living in this place. A place of uncertainty, a place of turmoil, a place we’d rather not be. What should we do when in this place? Build an altar. Offer up the sacrifice of praise. Worship God in the midst of the storm. Trust God despite the circumstances.
Don’t wait until everything looks good to build your altar. It says in Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NET) He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who observes the clouds will not reap. We can’t wait for ideal circumstances to do what’s right. No, we need to change our atmosphere by building an altar. Building an altar changes the landscape. It takes the stones or the hard things of life and builds on them. Moving them from being stumbling blocks to what we worship on. It takes the wood or the rotten part of our lives and consumes it with the Holy Ghost. We put our flesh on the altar and consecrate it to God. Then the smoke from the altar changes the aroma around us. It puts your dedication right in the middle of everything.
So don’t wait, build your altar. Alter the place where you are by living for God in the midst of it. Alter your heap of ruins by building an altar.
Psalm 43:4-5 KJV 4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. 5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.