Our God Is So Great...

So, just a few little thoughts to get things started off. I haven't really decided what to write about on a regular basis, or even if there should be a regular basis. So bear with me if this thing gets ignored for a while. I think that's the beauty of blogging though. So anyhoo, thanks for your readership. I hope this is worth your time. If it's not, check out some of the nifty links on the side.

Alrighty, down to the main thought of today. I was reading Psalm 70 which is fantastic and a short read, but I got a big question from it. Let's read a bit of it first.

v4 Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad

In You;

And let those who love Your salvation

say continually,

"Let God be magnified."

v5 But I am afflicted and needy;

Hasten to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, do not delay.

The phrase "'Let God be magnified'" is what I haven't really thought about much before. It seems simple enough, but is it? We don't use the word "magnify" in our daily speech so it's implication is a little lost on me. From what I knew about the word, I wondered how can we as humans could magnify God. Isn't He already so huge? How can our efforts make Him bigger? It must not be size related. Then I thought of magnifying glasses, how they give you a closer look at something far away. It would seem that this could imply maybe a more sight/distance related issue. I would like to think that people would see more of a holy, loving, God than me. I hope that he would dwarf me in peoples view. I did a little more searching about the phrase on www.blueletterbible.org. Another way to define magnify is "to make great." It doesn't have to do with God only. For instance, you could magnify yourself. The bible speaks of evil people magnifying themselves. So you can make yourself pretty great if you want to. I guess the lesson is simple here; let's make God great so that, apart from other created testaments, when people look at you they also see a great God. Make great who God is and what He's done in your life.

There's probably much more to be drawn from this and making God great can seem like a hard thing to do. We love ourselves. We love letting other people know how awesome we are. But, the more encounters we have with a Holy God, the more we realize who we are. We see what rough shape we'd be in left to ourselves, but praise God that he saves us! He is making us more like His Son everyday. Our heart's instant reaction is to make Him great because we realize that we must decrease and He must increase. When we encounter God's holiness and His consideration, and salvation of us, the mundane, we can't help but Magnify him. Like Mary's beautiful song of praise in Luke 1:46-55 we all have our own when we think of what God has done for us through Christ.

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.