Build an Altar?

Do you ever feel like God has forgotten you?  At times, all of us can feel that way.  When prayers aren’t answered or situations go terribly wrong, we can get discouraged and wonder – where is God?  One of the main ways to combat these negative feelings is to reflect on how God has met us and provided for us in the past.  We must continually remind ourselves that God is on His throne, intimately involved in each one of our lives. 

It says of Abraham after he had an encounter with God, that he built an altar there.  “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’  So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.” Genesis 12:7  As I see it, Abraham built an altar to remind himself of God’s promise and provision.  In a similar vein, when God moves in our lives in a powerful way, we too must “build an altar.”   Perhaps we build an altar by journaling about our experience.  Or, perhaps we create an altar by sharing our story with a friend or giving a public testimony of how God intervened in our circumstances.  Regardless of how we go about it, like Abraham, we should build altars of remembrance in our lives.  They will help to stabilize our faith and remind us to trust God in difficult times.