“Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God” ( Psalm 43:4)

It is common to find people who leave behind inscriptions of their existence. Perhaps it is their names written boldly etched in some stone or a statute made in their own image! We have heads of state who adorn state currencies with their face motifs!

When it came to Abraham his was to build altars to the living God. Abraham built his first altar, as a sign of thanksgiving: “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him” ( Gen 1:27). When Abraham later parted with Lot, he “went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord” ( Gen 13:8). And before his botched sacrifice of Isaac, “When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood..” ( Gen 22:9-10).

So why the fuss about altars? Altars were a point for Abraham to recognise his special relationship with God. Through these altars Abraham could express his love and thanksgiving to the living God.

Today, our worship is not restricted to altars, since, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Yet through Abraham’s example of raising altars to the Lord, we should equally be inspired. Indeed, we can raise altars too in our families and even workplace, for thanksgiving, worship and intercession.

Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today I raise an altar of thanksgiving and worship to you, for you have been so good to me, and may this altar serve as a reminder of my special relationship with you, this I pray in Jesus’s name.