What Do You Magnify?

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Monday, October 30, 2006

What do you magnify in your life? The Psalmist said, "Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." But how many of us magnify the Lord above all else in our lives?

Magnify, of course, means to exalt, to enlarge, to make important. Let me mention some things we tend to magnify, that cause us real problems.

First, many Christians magnify their past, the things that have happened to them in previous days–in their childhood perhaps, or maybe a past as recent as yesterday. By magnifying the past, the pains and hurts that you have suffered become even larger and take on a much greater significance. I can think of many I know who talk about their past all the time, who are struggling to live with events from the past, to understand why things happened to them, and in the process, probably without realizing it, they have magnified their past.

Some people spend their lives living in their past, remembering the good things that happened to them and escaping from the present by magnifying the past. Those "good old days" get better and better, and are blown way out of reality as their past gets magnified.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians that they should forget the things which are behind and press on toward the goal of winning the prize for which God had called them. In Isaiah 43:18 it says "Forget the former things: do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing."

If we magnify our past, we will not magnify the Lord as we should. If we magnify the Lord, our past will assume its rightful place, and we'll see a new thing start to unfold in our lives.

Have you been magnifying your past? Does it occupy a great deal of your thought life? Do you live in the glory of your past, with nothing happening in the present? Do you dwell on the despair of your past, letting it affect everything that happens to you now? If so, will you ask God to help you magnify the Lord and stop magnifying the past?