A couple of years ago, I got it in my head that I wanted to read the bible cover to cover in 30 days. A friend had told me about it and explained that it isn’t about studying or meditating on the word, but to see a bigger picture, repetitive themes, see how everything pieces together into the whole. The type of things you can miss if you just read a book or isolate yourself in a handful of chapters during your study time. First, I want to note my epic failure of accomplishing this. I made it through Genesis and Exodus and part of Leviticus in the first few days and then…well, I stopped. No excuse, it was just more than I was prepared for at the time. I gave myself some grace so that my enemy couldn’t dance at my party of shame. But, in that short attempt at a lofty goal, God revealed something to me that I haven’t been able to let go of since. When God did something or shared something, they built an altar. They took the time to recognize God’s interaction with them, they didn’t want to forget or let it pass by.
14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring[a] forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” 18 So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord. – Genesis 13:14-18
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. – Genesis 8:20-21
As I meditated on this, God revealed something. These moments we have with God, He wants us to use them as building blocks to our faith. They allow us to have these reference points of His goodness and that He provides, He is faithful. But do we take the time to do something that captures them…so we don’t forget. Do we “build an altar”? Or do we gloss over them and not recognize the significance they have in our walk with the Lord.
I have many of these “altars” throughout my walk with the Lord. I’ve kept up with them through journaling or taking the time to recognize their importance in my life and write them in my heart and mind. For instance, about 11 years ago, God told me very clearly that I would marry in the month of February. It was so clear, a statement of fact. I wasn’t dating anyone, so I wasn’t sure where it had come from. But I journaled it, somehow, I knew it was important. The next couple of years went by and Feb of each of those years came and went, none of them included me walking down an aisle that wasn’t in the grocery store. After a couple of years, I honestly forgot about it. I met the man God had picked for me. He wasn’t ready and we weren’t equally yoked. He was also a drug addict. But God had told me he was my husband. So, I trusted God and the relationship progressed. He ended up asking me to marry him on Jan 29th, his birthday. Neither one of us wanted a long engagement or a big wedding. I had it in my head that if we were married, he would stop using. I was very naïve. I jumped on getting the license quickly, packing 4 weeks of marriage counselling into 2 and planning a very small wedding at our house. We were married on Feb 20th. It was a whirlwind. That first year was tough, he continued to use, and our relationship reflected how unequally yoked we were. Out of a need to control an uncontrollable situation, I did things that I would have never wanted to do in my marriage. Tried to control the money, ultimatums, kicked him out, said horrible, horrible things to him. Because of all of this, I was determined we had gotten married at the wrong time; I SHOULD HAVE WAITED!! Then, he admitted about halfway through that first year that he had read one of my journals when he was moving some furniture and had seen it. Panicked, I found the journal and started reading it, I couldn’t remember what I had written. That’s when I found the entry about being married in February. I just sat down, floored, I had forgotten. Thank goodness I had journaled it! That “altar” told me that I got married in God’s timing and that all of this was part of His plan. I didn’t like what was going on, but I stopped wondering if I married him before I was supposed to. I knew that the timing was God’s and no matter how bad it got, I could trust that.
Please don’t gloss over those moments with God. All that He shares has purpose. You NEVER know when you will need something He provided. You NEVER know when that will be what will sustain you. You NEVER know when it is all you need to withstand a storm. God is good, He provides. His provision goes so far beyond what we need to survive in this world. He provides what we need to survive the fiery darts of a relentless enemy, intent on stealing, killing and destroying us. Take the time to “build an altar” to remember His provision for when you need it the most.
Which Voice Will You Follow? 