O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. (Ps. 34:3)

I can still remember as a child growing up playing, getting into mischief (as most all young boys do), and basically spending days discovering new and exciting adventures that had my curiosity. One of these adventures was the discovery of the magnifying glass. Man, when I discovered that little device, I spent many a day looking at all sorts of insects, small sticks or rocks, words in a book, and just anything that I thought would look really cool when placed beneath its lens. Of course, there were certainly those times on a hot summer day, sun blaring, when I would hold the glass directly over some dry grass or newspaper and watch that bright little dot slowly begin to create smoke and burn right through it. Now that was cool back then but I certainly am not endorsing the practice now!

Webster’s defines the word magnify as to make something larger; to make something appear larger; also to extol and praise as in our opening scripture in the Psalms. When we magnify something or someone, we are increasing its original dimension or size so to speak into something much larger than it really is. For example, if I went to work tomorrow and was called in by my boss and were told that my services were no longer needed as an employee at my job, I would be faced with a decision of how I chose to respond. I could immediately enter into a state of panic, fear, anger, and a litany of many other emotions or I could choose to respond with, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord”. (see Job 1:21) You see, if I were looking at my job and paycheck as my ultimate means of resource, then Yes, I would most likely respond in a way that all my primary means of my needs being met were all gone. But when I look to God as being my provider, my Jehovah Jireh (see Genesis 22:14) and magnify Him, then I know that God is about to do something much bigger and better in my life by opening up another doorway just up ahead in my life.

This is just one example of how we can “magnify” the wrong things and how we often do in our lives. We are encouraged to Magnify the Lord, in the scriptures instead and by doing so, our so called problems, worries, discouragements and concerns will diminish and not seem quite so large in comparison. You might say friend, “How could we ever magnify God and make Him any bigger that He actually is?” You know what, you’re absolutely right in your assumption. But the reality is that if you try to see all of God, you won’t be able to comprehend Him. You can’t step back far enough to get a perspective on the whole of God. It’s impossible to focus on all of God. To really see Him, you have to change your perspective. You need to look a little bit closer. That’s what it means to magnify the Lord. It’s about getting up close and personal with one of the many aspects of who He is as God on a daily basis. And how do you do that? You start by acknowledging Him each day as your Lord & King. Many believers want to know Jesus as their Savior but not as Lord over their lives. I must confess that I certainly fell into that category at one time and at times still do when it comes to wanting to do things my own way instead of His way. Even the apostle Paul struggled with this. In Romans 7:15, he writes “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.“

So let us examine ourselves and our hearts on a daily basis to truly see what we are choosing to magnify in our lives. For when we willfully choose to Magnify the Lord in all we do and say, it will drastically change how we see everything and in return change how we respond to everything and everyone when we  step back and take a closer look.

Remain blessed,