Altars Of Gratitude - The One Year Worship the King Devotional
Altars of Gratitude
Read: Genesis 12:1-7
[Abram] built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 12:7
IN WORD Abram built an altar to God. What made him want to worship? God had taken a seventy-five-year-old man out of his homeland and led him to a new country, making extravagant promises to him for his faith and obedience. There was no written revelation at the time, no covenant history, no people of God. Just a man and his faith and a land of promise.
In a sense, this father of our faith is the prototype. We, too, have been called out of our homeland (this fallen world) and led to a new country (the Kingdom of God). We, too, have been given extravagant promises for our faith and obedience. And though we have a written revelation to learn from and a history of God’s people to inherit, it’s all new for us. We enter into the Kingdom with nothing but a call and a promise. We have to proceed by faith.
So whenever God gives us, figuratively, a piece of land—in other words, any victory at any stage of our pilgrimage—we need to build an altar there. We need to worship each step of the way, for whatever He has given and whenever He has appeared. The privilege of the call and the guidance along the way are reason enough for an enormous amount of gratitude. God has called us not only to go to a new country, but to be His. An altar of thanks is only appropriate.
IN DEED Our lives should be filled with such altars, monuments to the goodness of God for how He has called and where He has led. For every step toward the promise of the Kingdom, we owe Him thanks. For every piece of the promised land we’re allowed to stand on, we should be grateful. None of it is earned; all of it is grace. And we are allowed to participate in this plan by nothing but faith.
Abraham’s faith opened the way to magnificent blessing. So does ours. Give thanks not just today, but every day. Build altars whenever you can. Worship God for the privilege of hearing His call.
No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.
—AMBROSE
