Exalt God Above All by A.W. Tozer .

             
  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 honor 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 Creator creature
    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.
      Anyone who might feel reluctant to surrender his will to the will of
    another should remember Jesus’ words, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of
    sin” (John 8:34). We must of necessity be servant to someone, either to
    God or to sin.

  The sinner prides himself on his independence, completely overlooking the
    fact that he is the weak slave of the sins that rule his members. The man
    who surrenders to Christ exchanges a cruel slave driver for a kind and
    gentle Master whose "yoke is easy and whose burden is light". Matt. 11:30.
    I hope it is clear that there is a logic behind God’s claim to
    preeminence. That place is His by every right in earth or heaven. While we
    take to ourselves the place that is His, the whole course of our lives is
    out of joint. Nothing will or can restore order till our hearts make the
    great decision: God shall be exalted above.
   “Those who honor Me I will honor” (1 Sam. 2:30), God said once to a priest
    of Israel, and that ancient law of the kingdom stands today unchanged by
    the passing of time or the changes of dispensation. The whole Bible and
    every page of history proclaim the perpetuation of that law.
    “If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor,” (John 12:26), Jesus said,
    tying in the old with the new and revealing the essential unity of His
    ways with men.

  Sometimes the best way to see a thing is to look at its opposite. Eli and
    his sons are placed in the priesthood with the stipulation that they honor
    God in their lives and ministrations. They failed to do this, and God
    sent Samuel to announce the consequences.
    Unknown to Eli, this law of reciprocal honor has been all the while
    secretly working, and now the time has come for judgment to fall. Hophni  
    and Phineas, the degenerate priests, fall in battle; the wife of Hophni  
    dies in childbirth; Israel flees before her enemies; the ark of God
    captured by the Philistines; and the old man Eli falls backward and dies
    of a broken neck. Thus stark, utter tragedy followed upon Eli’s failure to
    honor God.

  Now over against this set almost any Bible character who honestly tried to
    glorify God in his earthly walk. See how God winked at weakness and
    overlooked failures as He poured upon His servants grace and blessing
    untold. Let it be Abraham, Jacob, David, Daniel, Elijah or whom you will;
    honor followed honor as harvest the seed.


 The man of God set his heart to exalt God above all; God accepted his
    intention as fact and acted accordingly. Not perfection, but holy
    intention made the difference.
    In our Lord Jesus Christ this law was seen in simple perfection. In His
    lowly manhood He humbled Himself and gladly gave all glory to His Father
    in heaven. He sought not His own honor but the honor of God who sent Him.
     “If I honor Myself,” He said on one occasion, “My honor is nothing. It is
    My Father who honors Me” (John 8:54). So far had the Pharisees departed
    from this law that they could not understand one who honored God at his
    own expense. “I honor My Father,” Jesus said to them, “and you dishonor
    Me” (John 8:49).
    Another saying of Jesus, and a most disturbing one, was put in the form of
    a question. “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and
    do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44). If I
    understand this correctly, Christ taught here the alarming doctrine that
    the desire for honor among men made belief impossible.
    Is this sin at the root of religious unbelief? I believe it may be. The
    whole course of life is upset by failure to put God where He belongs. We
    exalt ourselves instead of God, and the curse follows.
    In our desire after God let us keep always in mind that God also has
    desire, and His desire is toward the sons of men, and more particularly
    toward those sons of men who will make the once-for-all decision to exalt
    Him over all. Such as these are precious to God above all treasures of
    earth or sea.
  In them God finds a theater where He can display His exceeding kindness
    toward us in Christ Jesus. With them God can walk unhindered; toward them
    He can act like the God He is.
    In speaking thus I have one fear: that I may convince the mind before God
    can win the heart. For this God-above-all position is one not easy to
    take. The mind may approve it while not having the consent of the will to
    put it into effect.
 Though the imagination races ahead to honor God, the will may lag behind,
    and the man must make the decision before the heart can know any real
    satisfaction. God wants the whole person, and He will not rest till He
    gets us in entirety.
    Let us pray over this in detail, throwing ourselves at God’s feet and
    meaning everything we say. Let’s ask God today to be exalted over our
    possessions, our friendships, our comforts, our reputations. Let’s ask Him
    to take His proper place of honor above our ambitions, our likes and
    dislikes, our family, our health and even life itself.
    No one who prays thus in sincerity need wait long for tokens of divine
    acceptance. God will unveil His glory before His servant’s eyes, and He
    will place all His treasures at the disposal of such a one, for He knows
    that His honor is safe in consecrated hands.