An Altar of the Heart

And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Genesis 8:20 (KJV)

And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. Genesis 12:7 (KJV)

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Genesis 22:9 (KJV)

Throughout the Bible, altars are mentioned as places where offerings were made to God. It was an act of worship. In the Old Testament, it was a natural offering, but in the New Testament, it is a spiritual offering.

We are still instructed to build altars (spiritual altars) to God and bring Him an offering to express our love and gratitude for all He’s brought us through- when He’s met a need, whether relational, physical, financial, spiritual, mental, emotional, or whatever. We build an altar to commemorate how He’s brought us through a time of developing and maturing. We do it when we experience answered prayers. We erect altars when He gave us a song in the night season and surrounded us with songs of deliverance. When God gives us seed to sow or heals our heart by demonstrating to us that someone loves us, we build an altar. When God brings new people to our lives and opens a new chapter in our lives, we set up an altar.

Altars in the New Testament are not necessarily physical structures. They are points in time where we recognize the hand of God in our life and worship Him for it. We can take each event in life and use them as stones to build an altar to offer thanksgiving to God from our hearts. As we do, praise, prayer, intercession, and worship come together as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, an offering or aroma of love from the heart. Our heart becomes the altar. Like the smoke from the burnt offering in the Old Testament, our songs, worship and love ascend up to God.

So, all of life- the good and bad- take it and build an altar, and offer yourself to God, just as Jesus offered Himself on the cross, which was actually an altar. Our experiences become the building material to construct an altar of worship.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 2:1 (KJV)

We live our lives as living sacrifices, offering all we are and all we have to God. Build an altar out of the experiences of life and offer to God a sweet-smelling sacrifice of worship from your heart.