Magnify!

Join me in magnifying the Lord and spreading the news; together, let’s get the word out. Psalm 34:3

This week our church is hosting our first Vacation Bible School for children. The theme of this week is Magnify, and it’s such a joy to see children learning that God sees each of us, and that we are called to magnify his goodness to us. It’s funny how much we adults can learn just from studying the literature for the children!

Magnify is defined as making something appear larger especially by using a lens. When we magnify God, it doesn’t mean that we make him physically bigger, but rather that we make Him greater in our lives and in the lives of others. We focus on His greatness and intentionally elevate Him in our thoughts, actions, and affections while encouraging others to do the same!

However, we, as humans, tend to magnify problems instead of magnifying God’s promise. When we magnify problems, we aren’t changing the actual size of them, but rather,we simply make them bigger in our own mind.

The Lord’s prayer begins with the words, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” and it ends with, “Thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. Amen.” It begins and ends focusing on Him . When you magnify something you enlarge it so that you can see it better and understand it more. When we magnify someone we take our minds off ourselves and focus on the magnification. God would have us concentrate on magnifying His goodness to us.

Yesterday morning, the focus of Americans shifted from everyday problems to the bombing of Iran and the potential ramifications of this. Most of us find ourselves magnifying the event and turning our minds to what it could mean for our country. At times such as this, our job should be to magnify God’s greatness and remember that He is in charge!

Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, says: God raised him from death and set Him on a throne in deep heaven in charge of running the universe; everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. This is not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, and He has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules. Eph. 1:20-23

We can magnify all our situations by gaining a better perspective. We should ask God to help us see situations through His eyes as we recognize His sovereignty and control. For instance, there was a little boy who was dealing daily with a bully who lived down the street from him. He was trying his best to get up the nerve to stand up to the bully, but he was just too afraid and lacked the confidence.

One day his father bought him a telescope, and helped him set it up in the front yard. When his father got home one afternoon, the boy was using the telescope, but he was looking through the wrong end. He was looking through the big side.

The Dad approached the boy and said, “No son, you are doing it backwards. Turn it around, and it will make things bigger. The boy replied, “I know Dad, but right now I’m looking at the bully, and when I look at him this way, it makes him so small that I think I can take him!”

Maybe we need to turn our telescope around because we have magnified that problem long enough! We’ve talked about how impossible it is, how it’s never going to work out, and how we need to just accept the situation for what it is. However, if we turn the telescope around, we will see it from the right perspective. The perspective that says, “Nothing is too hard for our God.” He can handle whatever bully is magnifying the negative things in our life.

We have a God who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, and if He can do that, He can certainly take our magnified problems and solve them.

Magnify the Lord, not the problems!