God is calling you to rebuild your story. He not only wants you to appear healed and renewed on the outside, but He desires a genuine transformation from within.
He needs to flow in you for something to flow through you, through His hands. Build an altar to Him in your heart, and witness the Lord moving everything else.
Restoring the connection
“Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.”
Ezra 3:3
If the altar is the first step in reconstructing your story, there will be no difficulty in building everything else.
In the biblical context, the altar was a place of encounter with God, where sacrifices were offered as expressions of devotion, lament, and surrender. Rebuilding starting at the altar implies restoring connection and intimacy with the Lord first and foremost, placing Him at the center of our lives, and prioritizing our relationship with Him.
After the people returned from exile in Babylon, the first thing they did in the reconstruction was to build the altar. They offered sacrifices and surrendered everything they had to God, seeking His presence and power in that time of new beginnings.
Where only He sees
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
2 Corinthians 4:16
Often, when rebuilding ourselves, we tend to focus on the external aspects, what is visible and notable to others. We often strive to present an image, even to those who do not require it, that does not truly reflect who we are. This approach makes genuine change difficult and leads us to merely mask what is broken.
However, God desires to rebuild us from the inside out. He desires to commence the transformation in a place inaccessible to others. In doing so, the exterior will naturally manifest what has already been cultivated in our hearts and spirits.
We can only quell external storms when our internal storms are pacified.
The authority that God imparts to us to act in His name originates from an internal stirring of the Spirit within us, when we permit Him to do so.
Silenced pains
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Hebrews 4:1
Most of the time, in almost every situation, the Lord will not remove your problems with a mere wave of His hand. Instead, He instills faith and trust within you, and as you allow this faith to remain active even amidst adversity, you can witness God’s powerful intervention in all aspects of life.
The challenges may still persist—grief, loss, storms—but they lose their grip. They no longer define us, as we stand firm in the identity bestowed upon us by God.
It is crucial to focus on renewing our covenant with the Lord each day. From the altar of surrender and complete devotion, we witness His power working within us and through us.
As we reconstruct our spiritual altar, we acknowledge our dependence on God and our need for His guidance and provision. It is an act of humility and surrender, wherein we entrust our lives and circumstances to the Lord, placing our faith in His direction and care.
Only He fills
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
Psalm 42:1-2
Just as the altar in the Old Testament served as a place of reconciliation and forgiveness, rebuilding our own leads us to seek reconciliation with God and others, allowing Him to restore what is damaged in our lives.
You were born to have a relationship with God. When He created us, it was not due to a deficiency on the part of the Father, but rather out of His desire to have something more to share in all His glory.
No other relationship, apart from our dependence on the Father, can fill our emptiness. That’s why everything begins to be restored when we first seek His presence. Because in doing so, He fills us, rebuilds us, renews us, and only then can other areas and relationships in our lives be reestablished.
Jesus is the center
“In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:6
Money, friendships, career, family—these are all valuable aspects of life, as the Bible itself acknowledges.
However, if God is not at the center of everything, if our first fruits do not belong to Him, we will continue to feel empty. Begin the reconstruction with the altar, and the rest of the temple will be built by Him.
May He be the center of our lives, guiding us at every step along His path and enabling us to live according to His will and purpose. He created you for Himself, and will accomplish much through your life.
