“There is a big difference between a mattress and an altar.”
That won’t come as a big shock to you. It did come as a shock to me because of who said it. That phrase is something God spoke to me in the quiet of my heart last week. A kind of ‘out of nowhere’ word.

I was talking to Him about how I was feeling about my life and He repeated that phrase: “There is a big difference between a mattress and an altar.”

I asked Him to spell it out for me, as I wasn’t sure exactly what He was driving at.
He showed me a picture of an altar- hard, stone, unyielding and barren. Nothing comfortable, easy, clean or cosy here. Then I saw the thick mattress on my bed. The tall, deep, just the right amount of hardness v softness place to lay my head. It is comforting, comfortable and easy. Not the place of sacrifice.

I looked again into my imagination and saw the stone altar. I remembered the many times Abraham and others built altars to God in the Old Testament as a sign of what He had done, or was about to do. Altars are not comfortable places to lie on. They are empty places. Places where dreams, hopes, fears and trust is laid.

There is a big difference between lying down and giving up, and laying down and giving it UP to God.
Today I sense that I am not meant to lie down in bodily comfort, but lay down in complete faith those things in my spirit that seek to trouble me.

Altars are actually very good for that.
What do you need to place on that Altar today? Your children? Your career? Your mortgage? Your health? Your eating disorder? Your porn addiction? Your deceit? Your fears? Your dream?
Thank you God that You will keep us in perfect peace when our hearts are stayed on You.

Help us lay down and give whatever we need UP to You today. Amen