Stop. Build an Alter & Pray.

I was listening to T.D. Jakes the other day and he was talking about King David in 1 Chronicles 21. David was provoked by the enemy to take a census of Israel, which was wrong in God's eyes because it led David to pride. So God had to punish David and Israel. David realized how he sinned and humbly went to God and asked to be forgiven. God forgave David, but He still punished Israel. He gave David a choice of famine for 3 years, 3 months of being handed over to the sword of his enemy or 3 days of the sword of God (plague), David chose 3 days of plague.

14" So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, 'Enough! Withdraw your hand.' The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

Okay, the threshing floor, was both physical and spiritual. Physically it's where the farmer people would get the grain and put it on the floor and stomp, and press down, then the grain would be thrown into the air, and the wind would carry away the chaff (the useless stuff). Spiritually, the threshing floor is a season when God pushes and pounds onto you, then lets the windstorm come through your life, to carry away the chaff - the light, superficial things about you that He can't use in His Divine Plan. Out of love, God destroys you, basically. Even in these verses you can see the love God has for His people, His heart was grieved was the angel was destroying Jerusalem. Like a parent who has to discipline their child.

16"David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell face down."
And REPENTED, and pleaded with God, to have the plague only affect him and his family not the entire kingdom of Israel.

18"Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an alter to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord."

So David physically goes to the threshing floor to build an alter to God.
He went in the midst of all his problems and strife, built and alter and cried out to God. He didn't run away in the midst of the storm! Right then God was letting the winds blow on David. David was being torn up and he physically went to build and alter. He knew God was doing this for a reason. David bought the threshing floor for full price, used his own cattle and stuff to burn offerings, he would not burn an offering that cost him nothing.

25"So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. 26David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering."

Then God spoke to the angel, and the angel put his sword back into its sheath. That's when David saw that God has answered his prayer at the threshing floor.

Wow. God is so good. God made a covenant with Israel and used David's sin to turn them back to God. God's grace just fills this chapter.
If you are ever going through a season in your life that is difficult and God is just really beating on you, it's for your good. God is always for your good! He's taking those things about you that He can't use, and you shouldn't use and throwing them out the window!

15"Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him. . ."
Job 13:15

24"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord."
Psalm 31:24

When life is too much, stop looking at your problem, build an altar, look to God, and cry out