01/01/13

It's a brand new year.

What are you going to do with it?

Something that keeps coming to my mind is taken from a sermon my pastor preached a couple of weeks ago.  What do I want to do this year?

Magnify the Lord.

In Luke 1, Mary was overwhelmed over the knowledge her cousin Elisabeth shared with her that her own baby (John the Baptist) leaped in the womb as soon as Mary greeted her. 

Elisabeth continued to say to her:
"And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord." (v. 45)

Elisabeth was reaffirming what the angel Gabriel had said to Mary just three months prior that she was going to be the mother of God's Son. 

What did Mary do?
She said: "My soul doth magnify the Lord."

She then began to worship the Lord in praise and thanksgiving for what He was about to do in her life.

Mary's life was not easy.  Her future was set.  Her future was that she was going to watch as her own Son died on the cross for her sins, as well as the sins of you and me.

Not a great way to view the future knowing that your child will die.

Yet, still she magnified the Lord.

I don't know what this year holds for us.  

It is a year of new beginnings, new challenges, new joys, new loves.

Throughout this year my desire is to magnify the Lord through all circumstances. 

I want to do as the Psalmist says: "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." (Psalm 34:3)

What exactly does magnify mean?  I found it for you.  :)

magnify

mag·ni·fy

[mag-nuh-fahy] Show IPA verb, mag·ni·fied, mag·ni·fy·ing. verb (used with object)

1.to increase the apparent size of, as a lens does.

2.to make greater in actual size; enlarge: to magnify a drawing in preparing for a fresco.

3.to cause to seem greater or more important; attribute too much importance to; exaggerate: to magnify one's difficulties.

4.to make more exciting; intensify; dramatize; heighten: The playwright magnified the conflict to get her point across.

5.Archaic. to extol; praise: to magnify the Lord.

Here is my take on those definitions:
 
1.  This year I want to continue to see God as the BIG God that He is.  Limitations are put on God's blessings for us when we put Him in a box.  I had Him in one for a majority of my life.  So thankful He broke through and showed me Who He really is.

2.  I want to magnify Him to others and elp them to see Him through me.

3.  I do not want to magnify my difficulties, but I want to magnify that the Lord knows what is best in all things for me.

4.  I want to show the world that being a follower of God is exciting!  I don't have to dramatize Him, but following the path God wants for me is far better than anything I can do on my own.

5.  Finally, just PRAISE HIM for all He will accomplish.

I welcome you to join me in magnifying the Lord in 2013.