Greetings to you in the name of Him who is the same yesterday, today and forever, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! Another beautiful morning in the Kingdom and it is going to lead us into a grand weekend. I trust that you have had a good week as you journeyed with God and responded to His holy nudges. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to prepare you – heart/mind/spirit – to receive what He has portioned out for you.
This morning’s verse: “O magnify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.” Psalm 34:3 KJV. My morning devotional began with the words: “When in doubt, always worship. If for some reason you can’t seem to sense what to do in a given environment, worship. This is always the right perspective. In one sense, to worship is to magnify.” Bill Johnson – Hosting the Presence Every Day. I pondered that as I drove to the office.
I don’t think I spend enough time, consciously and deliberately, ‘magnifying’ God’s presence and activity in my life – especially in those times of waiting and questioning and doubting. Just to clarify in my own mind, I looked up the meaning of ‘magnify’. “Magnify means – to enlarge the size of, to change the perspective of, to draw closer in proximity, to concentrate the power of …”. How fitting it is that the Psalmist counsels us to “magnify the LORD“ – enlarge His size, change our perspective of Him, draw His presence closer to us, and concentrate His power. So when we “worship the LORD” in the moments when we are trying to make sense of a life situation or challenge, when we don’t know what to do next – we are “magnifying” His size, His proximity, His power, and we are gaining a new perspective.
I understand, as do you I am sure, that if we don’t “worship the LORD” we will worship the problem/challenge/circumstance – whatever. In doing so we “magnify” it and it obscures the presence of the LORD. When the LORD is obscured, our ability to enjoy His presence and to rely on His ability and to believe in His goodness diminishes. Therefore – “worship” is an not a luxury set aside for happy-everything is great-no problems in my life times but a necessity for our soul survival. I know that many times when life isn’t working and there is no happiness people want to avoid times to worship but strangely enough that is the opposite to what we truly need. “O magnify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together!” … “Greater is He Who is living within me than any circumstance, any impossibility, any fear, or any mountain I come up against.” – Bill Johnson.
Have a great weekend and be blessed!