The Altar
Building Altars That Shape Our Faith and Purpose
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD. — Genesis 8:20
There are moments in our lives that define who we are. We often talk about the moment we accepted Christ as Savior as one of those defining moments. For some, it was the day they met a person who changed the entire direction of their life. For others, it was a season of difficulty that reshaped everything they thought they knew.
But for many of us, if we are honest, those impactful moments could very well be described as altars. Moments of interaction with God that left us different from the way we were before we arrived. The altar is one of the most consistent images in all of Scripture.
From the earliest pages of the Bible, wherever God’s people encountered Him in a defining way, they built an altar. Noah stepped off the ark after the flood, and built an altar. Abraham received the promise of God on a mountainside, and built an altar. Jacob woke from a dream where heaven touched earth, and built an altar. Moses, Gideon, David, Elijah: the pattern repeats itself across generations and circumstances. Every time something significant happened between God and His people, they marked the spot.
An altar was not simply a place of religious ritual. It was a declaration.
It said something happened here. I met God in this place. I came one way, and I left another. And I refuse to let this moment pass without marking it so that I and everyone who comes after me will know that God showed up here.
The altars of Scripture were built from the ordinary materials of the surrounding landscape: stones gathered from the ground, wood cut from nearby trees. Nothing extraordinary in the materials themselves. What made them sacred was not what they were made of. It was what happened on them. It was the encounter they represented. The surrender, the sacrifice, the prayer, the worship, the obedience that took place there.
We are not so different from the men and women who built those altars.
We still have moments where heaven touches our ordinary lives. Moments where God speaks clearly into a situation we cannot navigate on our own. Moments where we come to the end of ourselves and find Him waiting there. Moments of conviction, of comfort, of calling, of clarity that leave a mark on us we cannot explain away.
The question is whether we mark them. Whether we pause long enough to acknowledge what just happened. Whether we build something in that moment, even if only in our hearts, that says I was here, and God met me, and I am not leaving unchanged.
Over the coming devotionals, we are going to explore the altar in its many forms. The altar of surrender and repentance. The altar of prayer and stillness. The altar of worship, sacrifice, and obedience. The altar of remembrance, community, and calling. Each one represents a different kind of encounter with God. Each one carries its own invitation.
But before we explore each altar individually, the most important question is simply this. When was the last time you built one?
When did you last pause in a moment of genuine encounter with God and refuse to walk away from it unchanged? When did you last mark a place in your life and say something happened here between me and God, and I will not forget it?
The altar is not a relic of the Old Testament. It is a practice as relevant today as it was in the days of Noah. God is still showing up in the ordinary moments of ordinary lives. He is still speaking, still moving, still inviting His people into encounters that can change everything.
The altars are still waiting to be built. Every defining moment with God deserves to be marked. Do not let another one pass unnamed.
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About Another Well Ministries
Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
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God bless you Jared.