As a young boy, I used to play with my grandfather’s magnifying glass. I usually played with it under the sun to create heat, and of course, I used it to make things look bigger. What amazed me, as a kid, was how things looked completely different under the magnifying glass. In short, the magnifying glass changed my perception or the way I saw things.

As a grownup, I realized that perception has a lot to do with our faith, too. Living your faith is like using a magnifying glass to look at life: It's not that life changes, but depending on your faith, your perception of life changes.

Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! Psalm 34:3

Recently, I have been reflecting on Psalm 34:3: “Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!” What struck me the most about the text was the word “magnify.” At first glance, we may define magnify, in the context of this verse, as making things appear bigger. While that is correct, I also learned that magnifying something is more than just making things larger. The word magnify, when translated to its original Hebrew word gadal, means “to grow up” and “to become great.” Hence, when we are urged to magnify the Lord, we are called to level up our faith and grow as Christians so that God will become even greater than our lives.

When challenges come, when we stumble, when we fall, let us magnify the Lord: Make Him bigger than our circumstances. How do you look at your problems? A.W.Tozer says, “Sometimes, when we are overwhelmed, we forget how big our God is.” Most of the time our problem is not really the problem. Our problem is how we look at them. We tend to focus more on the problem rather than focus on the big God who can help us through. Mark 10:26-27 says that, “All things are possible with God.” Through our faith, we get to look at life through a different lens – a lens where God is magnified. And that perception – where God is present – is usually what gets us through.

We have a big God and he is on our side! Let us not limit our God. Rather, let God be God of our lives. Let him grow and be bigger and greater in our lives.

Discussion Questions:

1. What lens do you use to look at life's challenges
2. How can you magnify the Lord in your life

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