"O LORD, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will give thanks to Thy name; For Thou hast worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness."  Isaiah 25:1 NAS

This verse is powerful! Say it out loud if you would please. Let it resound in your ears. Call someone and tell him or her this verse so they may be encouraged and exalt the Lord their God. The very first part of this verse, well actually the whole verse gives praise to the LORD God almighty. The very first acknowledgement the prophet Isaiah does is to recognize that He is addressing Yahweh, the self-existent, eternal God, all-powerful creator of the heavens and the earth.

He starts out by giving God almighty His rightful title as LORD and King, as the Almighty God who has no beginning and has no end. Have you been overwhelmed with His presence to where all you can say, as the apostle Thomas said when He had seen the risen Christ and His healed wounds, "My Lord and my God! (John 20:28)" These days as I am sure you have noticed the name of God is used so flippantly.

In fact it shames me to think that I have been guilty of using it flippantly before. Thank goodness though for His grace and mercy. What a gracious God we serve who is so patient with us. His patient's extends to all not just His children. He is "...not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)." Unfortunately in today’s world the name of God is just a word to most people. TV shows use it constantly. Movies seem to have a requirement to have it in them either as an end statement of a sentence or a foul word.

NEWS FLASH: "Oh LORD..." or "Oh my God..." is not the way to start or end a sentence with excitement or annoyance. How sad it is to hear it used so often in this way. Isaiah on the other hand knew to whom he was addressing as the true and living God. He was fully aware of how magnificent and marvelous the God he served was. David addressed Him in the same manner over two hundred times in the Psalms. After Isaiah gives the LORD His rightful title he says, "Thou art my God". To Isaiah He was not some far off foreign entity in the sky.

He was not some unknown force to be reckoned with. He was not a religious icon to keep on a shelf. No rather He was and is a God who desires for us to have a personal moment by moment relationship with Himself. He is a personal God who looks at each one of us as His favorite child. Isaiah knew this kind of relationship with the Lord. To know this relationship takes time. Does your spiritual life have the tag line, "I just don't have time" attached to the end of it? Isaiah listened regularly for the Lord to speak to Him.

He was in tune with a listening heart for the message God had for Him and for the people he needed to tell the things of God. In today’s corporate busy world the phrase, "I don't have time" can be a norm among Christians when it comes to daily devotional time with the Lord. How does anyone expect to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus Christ if they will not make Him the priority of their time? To say, "Thou art my God" is to say Thou are my priority, Thou are my life, Thou art my time, Thou art my every breath, and Thou art my everything.

Isaiah also knew that God was His God. The Lord is a personal God to me and to you. He is my God as well as your God. What Isaiah did not have was the hope we have in the God and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have the hope of total forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. We have Him as our Saviour and as the Lord of our lives. When Jesus is our Lord, meaning He is King of our lives, and we desire to follow Him in everything, the result from us will be the next thing Isaiah says, "I will exalt Thee."

Our hearts cry is to say "I will exalt You, I will lift you up on high. I will lift You up and give You the proper place in my life. You are the only high and mighty, true and holy God." The overwhelming feeling we get when we exalt the Lord is to bow before Him. This comes as a natural response to an all-powerful, all knowing, everywhere at once eternal God. When we exalt Him and give Him the proper place in our lives He will lead us into a proper perspective of worship to Himself.

Oh, how sweet it is to be in the place and presence of worship to the Father. By place and presence we mean having our hearts positionally right in humble awe of Him and Him alone for His presence is everywhere at once. We on the other hand may feel a distance or void between us due to our hearts being relationally off toward Him. In actuality we call Him to come where He already is. How neat it is though to know that at any time we can bring ourselves into His presence for we are told "draw near to Him and He will draw near to us (James 4:8).

It is an action on our part as He has already made the path into His throne room clear for us to enter it freely and with confidence (Heb 4:16, Heb 10:19). What is Isaiah's next response after giving the Lord His proper place of being exalted? It is the natural progression of giving Him the proper title for who He is and forever will be. It is what comes when we understand that He is our personal God, our friend. It is the result of giving Him the proper place in our lives. We of course give thanks to His name. The name that every tongue will confess (Phil 2:11).

We serve and amazingly gracious and merciful God who deserves all praise and glory. If it were possible to just do one thing all our days, it would be to give thanks for all He has done for us. Today take a minute and pray this verse as a prayer to our exalted self-existent God. Give thanks to His name.

By His Grace,
Adam