For a few months my women's Bible study at church was studding about sacrifice & suffering. It came at such an important time for me as I felt like at the end of last year God was speaking to me during my quiet time about this very same issue.

God started to reveal to me these different things and areas that he was asking me to take a look at, things that he was asking me to sacrifice for him. As I started praying through some of these things that God had laid on my heart, I started to notice a trend in all of these things.

Here was my list; my blog, my photography business, and my heart for ministry.

Being completely honest and vulnerable here God was showing me that these areas of my life had become more about myself and less about Him.

They had become about being known.

Being known around blog land, being known in the world of creative photographers and being known in the church. It had become about selfish gain.

I wasn't happy with these areas of my life and the direction they were going because I'd been spending to much time on my own trying to make something happen. Instead of letting God use those gifts. Use them to bless others, use them to share his heart and gospel. It had becoming about me and my own agenda.

They had become idols.

Idols are built when the flesh takes over and there's no room for God.

As I started to work through these areas, and seek the Lord in them I knew that he was asking me to lay them down.

To build an altar and lay them down. To sacrifice them. Part of that sacrifice was letting go of my ministers credentials. Another part of that was taking a step back from my blog and photography biz and really examine my heart behind it and my motives.

An altar is made when we lay things down sacrificially.

I realized very quickly that everything in my life was either an altar I was willing to lay down before the Lord, or it was an idol that I'd built up that had nothing to do with God and was completely all about ME!

I realized I had a choice. I could either build idols, or I could build altars before the Lord and let him make something really beautiful.

I challenge you today that if you're struggling with an area of your life to take a step back and pray about weather you're building altars or idols? My encouragement is that we always have the open handed attitude towards Christ where we hold our "things" our kids, our family, our blogs, our business in an open handed way that says to the Lord,

"Do with it what you will."

Andrea Worley