Take Your Place

 “And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord:”-Genesis 19:27

The man who is intimate with God will see and experience things other men will not.  They can entreat God with confidence, and where others will shrink from the same request they make; they in turn inquire with boldness.  When the time came Abraham knew the voice of God and followed, when others did not. 

The verse above comes to us concerning the father of Israel.  God’s chosen man, Abraham.  Here is up early to meet God, and he looks toward the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Only to find them burning to the ground.  Just one chapter before Abraham had noticed the angels of God headed toward Sodom, and he invited them in and entreated them as brethren.  He then began to inquire of God about Sodom and Gomorrah’s deliverance.  Asking for it to be spared of God’s wrath.  He began asking for fifty, just fifty righteous people in the city and God would spare it.  Then he asked for forty-five, then thirty, then twenty, then ten.  God was patient with him, and said he would spare the city at every count.  He heard Abraham’s request, and Abraham had the boldness to ask.  I believe Abraham had insight where others could not, because of his morning worship.  The hours that could have been given to work or rest, Abraham went to his place and stood before the Lord.  When you have a “place” it stands to reason that it is a place you frequent.  Whether it is a chair or a couch.  A pew of a church or certain locker at a gym.  Everything has a place, and it’s a place you go back to over and over.  I believe Abraham had a place he went to over and over to stand before the Lord.  To communion with him, to worship him, and to hear his voice.  The voice of God was Abraham’s priority.  He knew firsthand what obedience and belief could do.  He had seen how God had called him, blessed him, and provided for him in miraculous ways.  Abraham won battels he should not have won, obtained favor he should not have obtained.  Abraham thrived, because God was with him.  He was near to God’s will, and the Lord blessed Him.  He stood before the Lord, and because he stood before the Lord, that intimacy with God gave him a boldness and perseverance to continue to ask of God.  When you’re intimate with something or someone, it affords you a boldness that others don’t have.  The career carpenter will swing a hammer with confidence to drive a nail, because he has done it thousands of times.  The captain knows how far he can push his vessel because he has sailed it thousands of miles.  The husband can say things to his wife no other man can, and the same goes for a wife to her husband.  The man that appears before the Lord will have an intimacy with God that others are forsaking, and consequently they will have a boldness with God that some do not have.

Abraham couldn’t control the outcome of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he could make the ask.  He could presume upon God to change God’s righteous judgment; and God listened to him!  The Almighty God engaged with Abraham over the deliverance of a wicked and sinful city.  This is one of the many benefits of spending quality time with God.  That he hears and answers prayer.  Regularly, taking your place before the Lord to fellowship with Him to know His heart affords to that soul a boldness through intestacy that many miss out on, because they are captivated by the things of this world.