13Aug10 Exalting Ourselves or the Lord

This is part of a series that has been adapted from my study of A. W. Tozer’s spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God.

As with everything in our Christian pilgrimage, sacrificing ourselves and exalting God above all else is an ongoing process. Each and every day we have a choice to make: whether to surrender self and exalt the Lord, or to exalt self and surrender our fellowship with our Lord. It is the challenge of Romans 12:1, where we are called to bring a living sacrifice and lay it all on the altar — all that we are, all that we have, all that we know of ourselves to all that we know of God.

As Tozer reminds us, “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.” That decision becomes the great tipping point where we tip away from conformity to the world’s mold and tip toward transformation into God’s perfect will.

Tozer says,

“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 men, 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.”