Exodus 20:24, New Living Translation

“Build for me an altar made of earth, and offer your sacrifices to me—your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats, and your cattle. Build my altar wherever I cause my name to be remembered, and I will come to you and bless you."

In the Old Testament, before Jesus became the final sacrifice for us, altars were a place for offerings to the Lord. Atonement for sin. Praise. Thanksgiving. Worship. Today, thankfully, we no longer have to kill and burn animals to pay for our sins. We are free to repent, confess, praise, and worship from anywhere.

Whether you are standing in a chapel, a body of water, your shower, or the produce section of Walmart, you can worship. You can repent. You can bring a sacrifice of praise. You can pray.

Anywhere can be an altar.

Maybe you don’t have access to somewhere in nature right now — I usually don’t. Maybe your heart is desperate for connection with the Lord, but you keep thinking you have to wait until you get to church and make it to the next altar call before you can kneel before Him and confess and repent? Surrender? Praise?

That's not true.

Hebrews 10: 19-22 (NLT) says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

Let that truth sink in for a moment. We have full access! We can come to God, anytime, anywhere. We can bring our sin and our failures and our praises, and our prayers to the Lord wherever our feet find us. 

If you are falling for the lie that you have to be in church to pray, just look at that torn veil. You can pray from your car, while running errands or in the middle of the night laying in bed. You can repent from the deer stand or the mall. Worship from your prayer closet or the coffee shop. Your prayers are just as effective from a sofa, bar stool, or school desk. 

Anywhere can be an altar. 

Where will you worship today?