Everyone Has An Altar

Exodus 20: 4-6

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below. You shall not bow down to them or WORSHIP them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."

The Lord has really been teaching me about worship this past week and how I am worshipping ALL the time, whether I realize it or not. The problem is, its not always HIM I am worshipping. We are called to worship NO ONE but the Lord. Clearly stated in the 10 commandments, above is the 3rd commandment not to WORSHIP any other idol. But honestly I struggle with this every single day, all day long.

Ashley and I are reading this book called Wired For a Life of Worship by Louie Giglio. We are one chapter in and already the Lord has completely opened my eyes and convicted me about all the ways I am worshipping so many other things besides the Him. He reminds us that we were wired to worship because He made us that way. That naturally we worship all day everyday. We were made to worship the Lord specifically, but its our choice whether we do that or not.

This chapter was full of all kinds of mind blowing concepts about worship and examples of how people engage in incredible acts of worship all day long without realizing it at all, but one of the biggest things that stuck out to me was he said,

"Everyone has an altar, and every altar has a throne."

Um, talk about conviction. There I was BLOWN AWAY by this simple concept and realizing that God is not on the throne of my altar most of the time. Truthfully, He is only on it when I make time to worship at that altar, usually late at night, or at church, or maybe if I have some requests I want to put before Him. But I am screwed up girls. We all have altars we worship at and sitting at that altar there is always a throne of the ultimate thing we are worshipping.

Maybe its yourself on the throne, and you are consumed with the way you look, or your weight, or who is paying attention to you. Maybe its your boyfriend or husband, who you long to be with more than the Lord, and you hang on his every touch and word. Maybe its your passion, the very thing God has created you to do, to be, but you are placing it above the Lord. I dunno what all the things that are in our lives that we put above the Lord, but girls, there should be NOTHING, not one person, not one thing, that we love or worship more than the Lord.

The Lord has shown me so much what I am worshipping over Him this week. It doesnt even have to be bad things. We just so easily turn things into sin, because we are sinful. For example, for all of you who know me, know that I live to create. I see God as the ultimate Creator, and I love to do anything that allows me to create, to use the gifts that He has given me. To reflect the Creator! So creative outlets keep me energized all the time. Its a very healthy outlet for me. This week I am have been digital scrapbooking like crazy bc I am working on a project that I am trying to finish quickly. I could spend HOURS doing this. I love it so much its crazy. I just get so caught up in creating, the colors, the layouts, the pictures, it just all makes me so happy. And I get to think about NOTHING when I create which I love. But this week as I was scrapbooking, my converstaions with God went like this.

Me: "God, I am going to scrapbook until 11:30 and then I am going to spend time with you before I go to bed. It will give me like a good solid hour with you."

God: "Deal"

Me: "Oh man, its already 11:45! Wow, just one more layout and then I will spend time with you. I am almost finished with this one. Ill just say up a little later with you."

God: "Ok, I am just waiting"

Me: "Wow, its already 12:30! Time flies! Ok Ill stop now. Man, I am so tired. Lets go spend some time together."

God: "Ok"

Me: (Getting all snuggled in bed with my bible out) "Dear Lord, I just wanna learn from you, spend time with you, be filled up with.....zzzzz...zzzzz..zzzzzz..zzzzzz" (Im now sleeping and I get the F)

Girls, I totally worshipped the very passion that the Lord instilled in me, INSTEAD of the LORD who instilled it in me. And by the time I was done worshipping myself and my passions, I didnt have anything left for the Lord.

We do this all the time. All day, everyday. I want you to think this week as you go about your life. The tiniest things that you do, or the big things. What are you giving your energy to? And are you choosing something over God to do it? Who is on the throne of your altar? Because if the answer is not God, then we need to check ourselves and ask God to come alongside us to help us put our priorities in order.

He loves us so much, and we say we love him too, so lets truly WORSHIP THE LORD, with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls, and all our strength. He's our Creator! He deserves to be worshiped and praised for eternity just for being Him, no other reason needed.

Love you girls!

Natalie