Thank the Lord with Us
Wednesday @ 6:30 pm
Thursday at 10 am with a lunch to follow
I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. (Psalm 135:5-6)
Whatever we magnify, that always appears bigger. I suppose that this is a fairly obvious fact because that is precisely what a magnifying glass does. It causes things that lie under the glass to appear larger than they really are. So, if we were to put an ant under a magnifying glass, then that ant will appear larger than the spec that it is. Whatever we magnify, that is always bigger. Conversely, whatever we do not magnify, that appears to be smaller. Again, I don’t think I need to work at proving this to you.
Whatever fills our prayers or consumes our thoughts, that is what we’re magnifying. When your thoughts are swirling around the troubles, challenges and frustrations of your day, they appear massive. When your mind and prayers are consumed with requests for help with this or with that, they appear to be massive. I’m not at all suggesting that we don’t bring our prayers, requests and petitions to the LORD. We are told, even commanded, to cast all of our cares on him because he deeply cares for us. I am only suggesting that if our heart’s complaint and our pain dominate our prayers, then we will almost always be overwhelmed. Whatever we magnify, that appears bigger. Whatever we do not magnify, that appears to be smaller. In this case, our problems appear to be massive and our God appears to be itty bitty in comparison.
But that is not the God the psalmist in these psalms (or ever) presents to us. In fact, the psalmist presents the only God to us who is beyond comparison. There is no one like him. He is the one who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He is the one who brought his people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He is the God who wandered with his people in the wilderness and then brought them into the land of promise.
He is the God who chose you to be his own and redeemed you by the blood of his own hand. He is the God who has raised you up from the dust and death of your sins and exalted you to the heights. He is the God whose love endures forever, who is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He is the God who does whatever pleases him. And what pleases him is your salvation. It pleased him to order all things and to give his Son for you. It pleased him to wash your sins away in baptism. It still pleases him to provide for you throughout your life and to work all things in your life. Those things that loom large in your heart, he already knows them and has already ordered all things in heaven and earth to bend those things for your eternity.
Magnify the Lord throughout your life and in your prayers. His love endures forever.
Prayer: Lord God, when things in my life dominate my mind and my heart, turn my heart's gaze to you, O God. For there is none like you. Turn my petition to praise and my complaint to worship, for your love, Lord, endures forever. Amen.