Reconnecting With God

In the Old Testament, when someone would have an encounter with God, they would build an altar. Altars became places where Israeli would meet when they needed an answer from God. They would go there, pour our their heart and wait for Him to answer. I’ve started to think about where I go when I need God to hear my prayer or when I need to encounter His presence. We don’t set up stones anymore, and we don’t sacrifice animals to Him. However, it is still crucial that we have that quiet place we can go to privately to pour out our heart and seek Him. Whether it’s a place or just a time set aside to pray, we need them in our lives to wait on the Lord. It’s at these altars we are transformed and changed.

In 1 Kings 18, King Ahab and his wife Jezebel had led Israeli away from God. Jezebel had torn down the altars and removed the places where people met God. The people began to worship idols, but Elijah was called to help them return to the one true God. He met them on Mount Carmel. Verse 30 says, “Then Elijah called to the people, ‘Come over here!’ They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down” (NLT). He rebuilt the connection between the people and God. He called fire down from heaven to consume the sacrifice, and the people restored their commitment to God. It’s important to examine our heart and life to see I where we need to rebuild our connection to God just as Elijah did.

Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them hearts that recognize me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.” Our first prayer should be for God to examine our heart. Is He still Lord over every part of our life, or have we allowed other things to come in and break down our altars? When we find those places, we need to rebuild the altar to God and return to Him wholeheartedly. We can’t waiver between two positions. We must allow Him to be Lord over our whole life so that we become a living sacrifice of worship to Him. Pray that the transforming fire comes down from Heaven to reignite our heart for Him. We each need a personal revival and that begins with repairing what’s been torn down so we can reconnect all areas of our life to God.

Photo by Tatenda Mapigoti on Unsplash