Friday 6th December 2019 Prayer Devotion
Scripture Reading:- Genesis 13:1-18
Topic:- Building Family Altar
Text:- Genesis 13:4
I want to take you on a journey through the beginning of Scripture and show you examples of altars throughout ancient times. Altars are a memorial of the places where God meets us.
A. Altars in Scripture:
Altars are mentioned often in the Bible and they can represent many different things.
1. They are places of encounters, forgiveness, prayer, worship, covenant, and remembrance.
a. Noah built an altar with his family after the flood and made a sacrifice. Then, God made a covenant with him and his descendants. See Genesis 8-9.
b. Abram built an altar after God gave him a covenant promise that he would give the land of Israel to Abram’s descendants. See Genesis 13.
c. Isaac built an altar after he re-dug his father’s wells and God confirmed his covenant blessing to Isaac because of his pledge to his father, Abraham. See Genesis 26.
d. Jacob built an altar after God changed his name to Israel and made peace with his brother, Esau. See Genesis 31-33.
e. Joshua built an altar out of memorial stones when the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan river carrying the Ark. See Joshua 4.
f. Moses built an altar after he wrote the Torah and God made a covenant with the Children of Israel. See Exodus 24.
B. These are just a few examples of people building altars throughout antiquity representing the occasion and place where they had a personal encounter with God.
C. A Time of Altars:
1. I love what Pastor Jack Hayford says about building altars in his teaching, “A Time of Altars”. Pastor Jack has been a major supporter of the TLV translation for many years. He described the project as “A Miracle in Motion” and his friendship has been one of my life’s greatest treasures.
2. He says the following:
a. God has a place of ‘altaring’ for us. There is a place of ‘altaring’ and a price of altering. Altars have a price – God intends that something be “altered” in us when we come to altars. To receive the promise means we make way for the transformation.
b. I believe that’s what God has waiting for you at your Family Altar – transformation of your whole family. Do you believe that, too?
c. Pastor Jack continues, “Abraham knew there was a place for him, and God has a ‘place’ for you. There is a longing in every human heart for where we are meant to be, but we get caught up in our notion of how it’s going to be fulfilled. d. When the Lord told Abraham he had a place for him, Abraham probably imagined a verdant valley, flowing stream, lovely mountains. But the Scripture says he came to a place were Canaanites were living in the land. The Canaanites were the most perverted, corrupt culture in human history. They were the Satanists of that time.
e. Abraham’s building of the altar represents his saying: ‘I’m accepting a promise, understanding that this is different than what I thought it was going to be, but it’s also something that I believe God can bring to pass. I trust You, Lord, that You will make it work.’
f.Your decision of building a family altar in your home represents your saying, “I’m accepting a promise, understanding that my relationships with my family might be different than what I thought they were going to be, but it’s something I believe God can heal and renew. I trust you, LORD, that you have my family in the palm of your hand.”
g. Building a Family Altar is the beginning of re-working communication with your family. Having a Family Altar in your home is a space where you can have an encounter with God, a space of worship, a space of prayer, and a space of covenant between you and God, and your family and God
Prayer Point:- I command that my family altar be on fire henceforth, in the name of Jesus Christ.
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