Short Thought continued.....

Pitch Your Tent: Build An Altar

 

‘All these people died still believing what God had promised them. 

They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. 

They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth...

But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland.‘

(Hebrews 11:13, 16 NIV)

 

Abram was called by God to leave the land he was living in and go to the land God would show him. 

So he left his home with his wife, Sarai, his nephew, Lot, and all his wealth —

his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran

— and headed for the land of Canaan. 

 

He travelled through Canaan to Shechem.

First of all, he pitched his tent;

Secondly, he built an altar.

(Genesis 12)

 

As he travelled, he made temporary provision for his basic needs

but permanent reminders of God’s glory.

He lived by faith in his God, the One who called him out into the unknown,

living in the land of his inheritance as if he was a stranger.

 

Abram knew that the world had no permanent claim on him:

he ‘was looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland.’ (Hebrews 11:16) 

By building an altar out of stone, a thing of permanence,

Abram created places where he and his children –

and generations to come –

could visit, remember and worship God.

 

Where are you called to go and ‘pitch your tent’?

How can you ‘build an altar’ where you are?

What permanent reminder or legacy are you leaving for future generations?

 

Prayer: Lord, reveal to me where I am to invest in temporary things,

and how I can invest in leaving a permanent reminder to your glory. Amen.

 

Thought: What does it mean to live as nomads on this earth,

whilst looking forward to a heavenly homeland?

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