The question today is, “How big is your God?” This may seem like a strange question but when you understand today’s focus it will make sense to you. Perception determines reception. As Pastor Ron Carpenter says, “The way you perceive a thing is how you receive a thing.” In other words, the bigness of God to you determines how big God can be for you. Look at this story of Jesus when he visited his home time:
“He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.” Mark 6:1-6 ESV
Did you see it? Jesus “COULD DO NO MIGHTY WORK THERE”. The people saw Jesus as nothing more than one of their peers, a son of the community, who wasn’t anything ‘special’. Wasn’t he just a carpenter’s son? This stance literally disabled God from working in their lives in a mighty way. Familiarity breeds disrespect. Disrespect causes us to devalue the person or the resource right in front of us.
Again, how big is your God? Psalm 34:3 says, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!” Magnification is an interesting concept. When you magnify something you don’t make it bigger in size literally, conversely, you are enlarging your perspective of it. Therefore, when you magnify the Lord you are increasing the size of God in your own mind, in your perspective. Perhaps, this is why Jesus instructs us - in the model prayer - to start with magnification or praise. “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your Name.” This first step may seem insignificant and simply a starting point with little more than a greeting involved. Nevertheless, I suggest to you that God knew that most of the time when we approach our perception of Him compared to our problems, situations, and enemies would be skewed with an early perspective.
PERCEPTION DETERMINES RECEPTION.
Maybe this is why our prayer times are often impotent. We dive straight into our problems, our prayer list, and our enemies and skip this step of MAGNIFYING the Lord.
Praise, gratitude, and thanksgiving is changing your vantage point.
While flying in an airplane, the cities and land masses below seem so small. The plane has lifted me to a different vantage point to see life from a different perspective. Nonetheless, the cities and mountains and streams don’t become smaller. They simply look smaller.
In the same way, when praise and thanksgiving lift us up to a different vantage point our struggles, fears, worries, and enemies look a lot smaller. Why? Because we magnify God in our hearts and minds. No, your problems don’t magically get smaller AND God doesn’t get bigger in reality. We just receive Him different and as a result this changes the way we receive Him.
Today’s challenge is for you and I to magnify God everywhere we go. When we can, let’s voice our praise and gratitude for God. When its inappropriate to speak out loud, let’s make a melody of praise in our hearts or praise in the Spirit.
Come on! Magnify the Lord with me! Whose in? Comment with your first BIG PRAISE below:
