The Most Precious Altar

Bible Verse: So Abram moved his camp to Hebron. There he built another altar to the Lord. Genesis 13.18

Daughter Lesson: We’re always building altars. The heart is where we build our most precious altar. On it we lay everything important to us. Our dreams, our passions, our secret hopes. We lay the kindling of desire that will sweep up into whatever flame we choose to burn on it. And we get to choose. We each get to choose what we honor there.

That is what we will follow. Pay attention to what you wander after. You’ll wander about the countryside following whatever desire you set your heart on. And there you’ll build your altar. 

People wander after all kinds of goals. Some for money, some for fame or popularity, some ambition or success. Some search for acceptance; some to be their own master and not to have to do what anyone says.

The Psalmist says what he searches for, what he wanders after:

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. Psalm 27.4

and…

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

David longed to be near God. To know God. To love Him. To build an altar in his heart for Him. And to worship Him there.

Abram wandered, too. He traveled from place to place, setting his tents wherever he went about the countryside. He left behind the best land to his nephew Lot because his heart wasn’t set on it. He had his heart set on something higher. Immediately after, God told him,

I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.” Genesis 13.15-17

So Abram moved his camp to Hebron. And there he built an altar to the Lord.

What is your heart set on? Do you long, as David did, only to dwell in the house of the Lord and gaze upon his beauty? Do you build your altar for God alone?

Please let me be clear — you will have temptations set before you, just as Jesus did when the evil one showed him all the kingdoms of the world and offered them to him if he’d bow down. There will be so many things you could set your heart on. So many altars. So much to burn. Will you burn for Jesus alone? Will you long for Him as Daddy does? Will you wander after Him and build your altar there where your heart finds Him?

Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We all get to choose, my daughter. As for me, I have decided to follow Jesus.

Come with me, and let’s build an altar together.

We’ll burn only for him. Won’t that be beautiful? For to Daddy God, right there where you heart finds him and makes him God alone — that is the most precious altar.

Daddy Action: Take a moment to worship the Lord out loud in front of your daughter to show her where your altar is built and who has Daddy’s heart. Also, reflect on what you wander after, and whether it is Daddy God alone.