Exalt God Above All

Order, both in nature and in human life, depends upon
right relationships; to achieve harmony each thing must be in its proper
position relative to each other thing. That’s why it is so essential
for God to have His proper place in our lives. When He does not,
everything is out of order.

We are right when, and only when, we stand in a right
position relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we
stand in any other position.

So let us begin with God. Back of all, above all, before
all is God; first in sequential order, above in rank and station,
exalted in dignity and honor. As the self-existent One He gave being to
all things, and all things exist out of Him and for Him. “Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast
created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created”
(Rev. 4:11, KJV).

Every soul belongs to God and exists by His pleasure. God
being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only
thinkable relation between us is one of full lordship on His part and
complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is in our power
to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less.

The pursuit of God will embrace the labor of bringing our
total personality into conformity to His. I do not here refer to the act
of justification by faith in Christ. I speak of a voluntary exalting of
God to His proper station over us and a willing surrender of our whole
being to the place of worshipful submission that the Creatorcreature
circumstance makes proper.

The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with
this determination to exalt God over all, we step out of the world’s
parade. We shall find ourselves out of adjustment to the ways of the
world and increasingly so as we make progress in the holy way. We shall
acquire a new viewpoint; a new psychology will be formed within us; a
new power will begin to surprise us by its upsurgings and its outgoings.

Our break with the world will be the direct outcome of our
changed relation to God. For the world of fallen men does not honor
God. Millions call themselves by His name, it is true, and pay some
token respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is
really honored among them.

Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of
who or what is above, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be
forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and man,
between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love,
and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be
exalted above. However the man may protest, the proof is in the choices
he makes day after day throughout his life.

“Be exalted, O Lord” (Ps. 21:13, NKJV) is the language of
victorious spiritual experience. It is a little key to unlock the door
to great treasures of grace. It is central in the life of God in the
soul.

Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join
to say continually “Be exalted, O Lord,” and a thousand minor problems
will be solved at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated
thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity. By
the exercise of his will he has set his course, and on that course he
will stay as if guided by an automatic pilot.

Let no one imagine that he will lose anything of human
dignity by this voluntary sell-out of his all to God. His deep disgrace
lay in his unnatural usurpation of the place of God. His honor will be
proved by restoring again that stolen throne. In exalting God over all
he finds his own highest honor upheld.