He Shall Be Exalted!

Photo Credit: http://ourlibrary.mornpen.vic.gov.au

So we’re now at the fifth element of the Holy Spirit POWER acronym : Exalting the Father.

According to the “Free Dictionary” on the web, to exalt means:

–       To raise in rank, character, or status; elevate.

–       To glorify, praise, or honour.

–       To increase the effect or intensity of; heighten.

Jesus lived a life glorifying the Father.

“Jesus answered, ‘My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.’”(John 7:16-18 NIV)

As with so many of Jesus’ statements, this one is pretty amazing with its humility. It also reflects Jesus’ intimacy with the Father. The Father lived, breathed and spoke through the Son.

Jesus didn’t try to grab the deadlines for Himself. He bounced all the glory back to the Father.

How do we manage to live a life where we too give the Father all the credit?

Brokenness

I don’t profess to have many answers at all and I’d love to hear any thoughts you may have in the comments below. Gaining such humility is a life-long preoccupation for us and is one of the reasons why brokenness plays such a part in our journeys.

I read Psalm 51 today. One of David’s great psalms, the one where he pours his heart out to God, in confessing his sin in sleeping with Bathsheba and having her husband Uriah murdered on the frontline.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (v 17 ESV)

Brokenness. It’s not something we look forward to at all. However, it’s amazing how many people tell me after a particularly difficult time of their life, they are appreciative of the experience, as it helped them grow in their faith.

Boyd Bailey shared in his commentary on this verse the following observation:

“When broken by God the heart can no longer be adamant to do its own thing.”

It’s at that point of being broken we realize our need for God. We can’t do this on our own. In surrendering our brokenness to God, we allow Him to take over.

In so doing, we honour Him. We exalt Him.

There’s so much more we could talk about here. I actually thought I was going to write a post about Thanksgiving as a form of making our heart tender towards God and in so doing, praising and honouring Him. Funny, how one’s mind works when writing. I’ll leave that for another time.

I look forward to reading some of your comments to foster further discussion amongst each other.