It is a new year and a time when I have a thorough self-examination of my life. This consists of prayer, meditation, and revelation from God’s Word concerning areas that need to be surrendered, where I’ve grown, and my spiritual goals moving forward. Upon studying Genesis, specifically Genesis 12:8-9, I am reminded of the importance of worship. It is the most crucial act in our Christian walk. So often there are times we take it lightly. For some of us, we do it some days and sometimes not at all.

When I look at Abraham I am reminded this year I want to go deeper in worship. Worship is giving God the best He has given you. God has and continues to bless me tremendously. He hears my prayers, He answers my prayers, He sets trials before me, and He chastens me. My worship, which is the personal intimate time I enjoy with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will reflect outward to the world in the manner with which you worship. Abraham pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai. Bethel symbolizes fellowship with God. Ai symbolizes the world. What I see is that wherever Abraham went in his journeys he pitched a tent and an altar. He was marked by his tent and his altar. The tent marked him as a foreigner who did not belong to this world and the altar marked him as a citizen of heaven who worshipped the true and living God. His worship was shown to the world. He gave witness to all that he was separated from this world, (the tent) and devoted to the Lord, (the altar).

The altar is where God appears to me. Without His appearance, there is no altar. When I meet Him there I am no longer my own. I know when I meet with God and He appears to me there a radical change takes place in my life. The power to live for God is based on my vision of God. This altar is an offering of myself to God. It is the consecration of myself to God. It is the kind of altar spoken of in Romans 12:1: “I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.” The altar does not signify doing something for God but living for God. The altar does not mean having busy activities but having a living for God. No activity or work can replace the altar. The altar is a life that is totally for God.  God appeared to Abraham, and Abraham offered himself to God. Once a man sees God, he will offer himself up totally to God. Once I see God’s mercy it becomes a living sacrifice. Abraham had seen God, and when he did, he immediately built an altar to God. Anyone to whom God has manifested Himself cannot do anything other than live for Him. At this point, anyone to whom God has manifested Himself cannot do anything other than live for Him. I can testify.

Living in the tent is living in God’s home. We have a life to live before God, and we also have a life to live in the world. In our life before God, everything must truly be on the altar. When we offer ourselves upon the altar and consecrate our all to God, He leaves certain things for our use. God demands that everything we have be placed on the altar and that we have placed what He has left for us in the tent. If we want to be in fellowship with God, we can never forsake the altar. May He be gracious to us and cause us to see the importance of consecration so that we may live a life of the altar and the tent!

Being careful with worship is a good theme for the year. Whenever Abraham abandoned his tent and his altar he got into trouble. As a Christian and a person who has come to know  God in Christ, I care what God says. This year I strive for more times of tents and altars to deepen my intimacy with the Father. I love it when He speaks to me and I hate it when I don’t immediately obey. I am praying this year times of disobedience will be it will be a few. Each time God speaks to me I will build my altar as a special occasion. With an eye to the God who never fails, I will continue my visits and correspondence with heaven every day, but throughout the day. The altar is set up and kept up wherever my tent is for the worship of God, seeking Him, and calling upon His name.  Wherever Abraham pitched his tent, he built an altar. Wherever we go, let us not fail to take our religion along with us

 

 

 

 

Sybil Clanton