Magnify and Blow Up the Right Thing
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
This prayer is so awesome because it begins Jesus’ work to reverse what happened in Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were not looking to magnify the Lord, but to magnify themselves.
They saw that that fruit was pleasing the eye and good for food, so they ate it. Rather than obeying God and trusting in His words, they did their own thing. They magnified themselves.
Even today we sometimes manipulate the Lord to magnify ourselves. Or magnify our happiness. Or magnify our peace.
God WANTS to magnify all of the aspects of the Holy Spirit in us, but that’s not the point. The point is His glory and His magnification in the world. As we participate in that with Him, He also increases it in us.
What if magnifying the Lord in our lives was the number one step to
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Forbearance
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Gentleness
- Self-Control
We often think that those get better as we focus on them and magnify them in ourselves.
No Way! If that were possible, it seems like a lot more people would just do it. Unfortunately, we aren’t very good at it even when we try.
When we magnify the Lord, from the depths of our soul, He works from the inside out to bring about such changes. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God is in us even more than Christ Himself was in Mary’s womb!
Magnifying the Lord with our soul is the best first step in any process. For Mary, it brought about the fullness of Christ in all of our lives.
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