I don’t know about
you, but I am not satisfied with just knowing that I am righteous by faith. I
also want to get to know the One who made me righteous. I want to have an
intimate relationship with my Savior!
Abraham was such a
man. He was righteous by faith, but he also had a close walk with God and was
blessed by God in all things (see Genesis 24:1). His nephew Lot, on the other
hand, although righteous too (see 2 Peter 2:7–8), had no heart for God. He
ended up losing a lot when Sodom, the city he dwelt in, was destroyed along
with Gomorrah. He was saved by the skin of his teeth!
My friend, do you want
to be a Christian like Lot, righteous but always finding yourself in trouble,
or do you want to be a righteous-and-blessed Christian like Abraham? Then, like
Abraham, have a heart for God.
From place to place,
Abraham would build an altar to the Lord. And in between altars, he grew very
rich (see Genesis 13:2)! There is no biblical record, however, of Lot ever
building an altar to the Lord.
What is an “altar” in
today’s context? It is a place where you know that you have a close
relationship with God. For example, when my late father was in the hospital, I
was worried and did not know what to do. I remember driving down the road and
crying. After a while, I just threw my cares to the Lord. When I reached the
hospital, I just laid my hands on my father and said, “Be healed in Jesus’
name.” And he was healed!
Till today, I can
remember the place where I had cast my cares to the Lord and leaned on His love
for me. That is my “altar.” And it is not the only one.
We have got to have this kind of relationship with God, one full of “altars” that remind us of His love, goodness and faithfulness. Let’s not live the Christian life like Lot, saved by the skin of our teeth. Let’s walk closely with God as Abraham did, and be richly blessed in every area of our lives! (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries used with kind permission).
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