Psalm 34:3 says, “Oh magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together.” It doesn’t say, “Oh magnify the problem with me.” One of the reasons we get together with other believers is to be in an environment where we magnify (make larger) God in our beliefs and emotions. We can’t make God any bigger but we can see Him as bigger. When He gets bigger, our problems get smaller. When we magnify the problem, God gets smaller and the problem gets bigger. 

Numbers 13 illustrates this in the story of the twelve spies who go into the promised land. Two of the spies magnified the Lord and came back with the report saying, “We can do this! Let’s go up at once!” (When we magnify the Lord, not only do we see Him as bigger, but we see ourselves as bigger too.) The other ten spies magnified the problem instead. They came back and only talked about the problems and challenges. They said, “We are like grasshoppers in our own sight and in their (the giants’) sight.” When we magnify the problem, not only do we see God as smaller, we see ourselves as smaller too. My question today is this: what are we magnifying? 

Here are 7 things we might have a temptation to magnify instead of the Lord:

1) The problems we are experiencing - Sometimes, instead of just sharing the facts about a problem, we can talk ourselves and others right into unbelief. We shouldn’t deny the problems - sometimes, we need to talk about them, but it is good to avoid continually talking about how bad things are. Where there is a lack of hope, there is difficulty in finding solutions. 

2) Our abilities and responsibilities - We all have responsibilities and important things to do, but when we focus more on what we need to do than what Jesus has done, we magnify ourselves and have made God’s salvation smaller within our lives. The Gospel is good news. The greater emphasis should always be on the promises and goodness of God.

3) What the devil is doing - Certainly we have an enemy to be wise concerning, but if we’re talking more about Satan’s attack than about God’s protection, we magnify the devil more than we’re magnifying God (and God then becomes smaller in our eyes). Instead of fighting darkness, spiritual warfare is about turning on the light through exalting what Jesus has done, not what the devil is doing. When the light is on, darkness has to go.

4) Our past - There are certainly times where we need to break agreements and tendencies from our family lines, but if we focus more on trying to fix things from the past than focusing on who God says we are as a new creation, then we make God smaller and our weaknesses bigger. 

5) Our apparent disadvantages - The victim mindset is rooted in the belief that we are at a disadvantage because of ______. It could be our finances, our family, what’s going on in our nation, etc. Again, we don’t deny those facts, but we can’t be fixated on where we feel that we’re at a disadvantage from other people. Truly, we all feel disadvantage in some way. These disadvantages may seemingly hinder things in the short-term, but magnifying God instead brings long-term solutions.

6) Our feelings - “I feel something so it has to be true!” “I feel non-powerful so I must not be powerful.” “I feel unworthy so I must be unworthy.” Our feelings are usually indicators of our beliefs. There are certainly times to deal with the belief systems that create feelings that are working against us, but if we spend all our time magnifying our emotions and how we feel, we will make our feelings bigger than God in our minds.

7) The faults of others - A perfectionistic, religious perspective creates a critical, fault-finding mindset that thinks poorly of other people. I know there have been times where I have looked at what was wrong with other people to justify what was wrong in my own life. “Well, at least I don’t do that.” We tend to judge others by their actions but ourselves by our motives. We might magnify what we see wrong with the opposite political party, in leadership over us, in our family, etc. Those things become bigger as we magnify them, and then God seems smaller and hindered by what the people around us are doing. 

What are we magnifying? Let’s magnify the Lord instead of problems we’re experiencing, our abilities and responsibilities, what the devil is doing, our past, our apparent disadvantages, our feelings, and the faults of others. Let’s be like Joshua and Caleb and put our focus on the grace, power, kindness, and goodness of God and watch Him become magnified in our own lives. Like them, it will help us enter into our Promised Land.