As I study this verse, I am reminded of a conversation I had with Linda B before she passed away. She had asked me about altars and why we don't build them. I said that we carry our altars with us wherever we are. Our hands. When we bring our hands together and lock our fingers, whether prostrate or kneeling, then the 'altar' which we have put together is set before God. And that's when we lay our sacrifice across it and surrender such to God.
Once we place our faith in God, it is with our hands and fingers that wars and battles are won. Our individual submission to God's will is not easy but a necessary action nonetheless. That's why it's called a sacrifice. We are giving up, surrendering, that which is precious to us and placing it on the altar to give it to God. That's where we lay ourselves, our families, our friends. Praying for their salvation, their baptism of The Holy Spirit, and that God would fill them also with a desire to know Him more and serve Him with joyful hearts and lips.
With our hands we open our Bibles. With our fingers we turn the pages. With our hands upraised and our fingers stretched forth in worship. In agreement we reach across time and distance, standing together in spirit, agreeing by Amen, that God will accept our sacrifices and be blessed by our words and actions.
"Blessed be The LORD my strength, which teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." Psalm 144:1
