PROBLEM DWARFED BY MAGNIFYING
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by Denise Shaw
A friend in the ministry recently shared about a conversation he had with a great woman of prayer.
She had been involved in the early days of the Pentecostal movement in this country, when it seemed so easy to get prayers answered.
This minister questioned her saying, "What's the difference between the way we pray now and the way you prayed back then?"
Her reply was simple and direct: "That's easy. When you folks get together, you spend all your time talking about how big the problems are. When we got together, we spent all our time talking about how big God is."
Psalm 34:1-4
"I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
"My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
"O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
"I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."
Several years ago, in the early years of our marriage (when money was tight), I remember getting up one night worrying over finances.
At the time, I was just a few weeks short of giving birth to our first child - and extremely HORMONAL.
I waddled the floor, stewed and fretted, fretted and stewed and then waddled some more.
Quite unexpectedly, I found myself thinking, "This is ridiculous. God has always taken care of us. There's not really anything I can do. I'm not really helping by fretting.
"I'm just going to take a moment and praise the Lord to show Him that I trust Him."
I was sobbing. So, in the most pitiful voice imaginable, I bawled through a red face streaked with tears, "I praaaaise You, God. (Sniff, sniff) I looooove You, Jeeesus. I maggggnify Yooooouuuu. I maggnify Yoouu. I magnify You?"
Suddenly, I found myself trying to picture what it would be like to look at God through a magnifying glass.
You know, He's a pretty big God. But when we look at Him in that manner, He gets REALLY BIG.
The longer I "magnified" Him, the bigger He got.
By the time I came to myself, my problems seemed like teeny tiny specks compared to Him and the greatness of His love.
When I started magnifying Him, I didn't feel like praising Him. I wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere and have a huge pity party.
Praising Him was a choice I made. Because of that choice, He blessed me.
Before I knew what happened, I found myself rejoicing all over the living room.
I went back to bed and slept in sweet peace, never fussing about that situation again.
Our finances didn't turn around instantly - it took some time - but we didn't go under either.
Ephesians 5:18-20
"...be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The aforementioned example about magnifying God is also a good illustration of Ephesians 5:18-20.
I spoke to myself. I sang and praised Him. I gave Him thanks.
Because I did those things, He filled me up.
When I poured my heart out to Him, He poured Himself into me.
It was a blessing that sustained me through very difficult times.
Nehemiah 8:10
"...the joy of the LORD is your strength."
The joy of the Lord truly became my strength.
His joy sustained me because I chose to praise Him in that hour of darkness.
Magnifying God is an awesome tool we can use in our prayer lives.
How many times are we given prayer requests that seem beyond our own ability to pray through?
How many times do we question whether or not we're really getting anywhere because the problems seem so big?
The longer I serve Him, it seems prayer requests become more and more desperate.
If I don't keep my focus on the Lord, the weight of those problems could become too much for me.
However, God's arm is never too short. According to Ephesians 3:20, He is able to "do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."
Of course, the ultimate source of the power in our lives is the Holy Spirit, but God has given us many powerful tools to use - such as His Name, His Word, and PRAISE.
Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people.
When we praise Him, He shows up.
No matter what the problem, it will melt like wax in the presence of the Lord.
Praise and thanksgiving are awesome ways to exercise or demonstrate our faith.
It's not always easy to praise the Lord, especially when the challenges we face seem so great.
However, it pleases the Lord when we put our fears and feelings aside to thank Him in advance.
Plus, it stays our minds, keeping them from wandering into the shadows of worry or discouragement.
I can't count how many times I have gone to prayer facing insurmountable odds, only to come out with a note of victory because I magnified God.
There's a very important prayer key here. We must be certain not to miss it.
David, the shepherd boy, was anointed to be king of Israel for many years before he ever took his place on the throne.
When did he take his rightful position?
When the people of Israel "proclaimed" him king.
Even though God said he was king - he did not operate in that capacity until the people gave him that place.
We know that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
There is something to be said about proclaiming Him King in prayer.
It reminds us of how awesome He really is - of His goodness and greatness.
It also gives Him a platform from which to operate.
The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He won't force Himself into certain situations.
It is our responsibility to make room for the Lord - clearing the way for the King of Glory to come in.
Psalm 24:9-10
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory."
This prayer key is important when praying for nations - especially nations that may not be considered Christian.
I have also seen these same principles work very effectively in praying for the terminally ill.
Let's face it, when we know of situations where loved ones are at death's door - those problems seem pretty big.
But which is greater - cancer or God's love? - heart disease or God's mercy? - diabetes or His healing touch?
So what am I trying to say?
The next time we go into the prayer closet - let's make sure that we're not talking about how big the problem is.
Let's make sure we're talking about how BIG God is.
Let's magnify Him, exalting Him as God and King over every circumstance.
By the time we get around to actually praying about "the problem" it will be dwarfed in comparison to the greatness of our God.
It's kind of like going to war behind a giant - one experienced in all types of combat - undefeated in every battle.
It's a lot easier to stay on the side of victory when we hide in the Shadow of the Almighty!
Let us exalt His Name together.
Let's magnify Him!
March / April 2002
A friend in the ministry recently shared about a conversation he had with a great woman of prayer.
She had been involved in the early days of the Pentecostal movement in this country, when it seemed so easy to get prayers answered.
This minister questioned her saying, "What's the difference between the way we pray now and the way you prayed back then?"
Her reply was simple and direct: "That's easy. When you folks get together, you spend all your time talking about how big the problems are. When we got together, we spent all our time talking about how big God is."
Psalm 34:1-4
"I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
"My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
"O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
"I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."
Several years ago, in the early years of our marriage (when money was tight), I remember getting up one night worrying over finances.
At the time, I was just a few weeks short of giving birth to our first child - and extremely HORMONAL.
I waddled the floor, stewed and fretted, fretted and stewed and then waddled some more.
Quite unexpectedly, I found myself thinking, "This is ridiculous. God has always taken care of us. There's not really anything I can do. I'm not really helping by fretting.
"I'm just going to take a moment and praise the Lord to show Him that I trust Him."
I was sobbing. So, in the most pitiful voice imaginable, I bawled through a red face streaked with tears, "I praaaaise You, God. (Sniff, sniff) I looooove You, Jeeesus. I maggggnify Yooooouuuu. I maggnify Yoouu. I magnify You?"
Suddenly, I found myself trying to picture what it would be like to look at God through a magnifying glass.
You know, He's a pretty big God. But when we look at Him in that manner, He gets REALLY BIG.
The longer I "magnified" Him, the bigger He got.
By the time I came to myself, my problems seemed like teeny tiny specks compared to Him and the greatness of His love.
When I started magnifying Him, I didn't feel like praising Him. I wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere and have a huge pity party.
Praising Him was a choice I made. Because of that choice, He blessed me.
Before I knew what happened, I found myself rejoicing all over the living room.
I went back to bed and slept in sweet peace, never fussing about that situation again.
Our finances didn't turn around instantly - it took some time - but we didn't go under either.
Ephesians 5:18-20
"...be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The aforementioned example about magnifying God is also a good illustration of Ephesians 5:18-20.
I spoke to myself. I sang and praised Him. I gave Him thanks.
Because I did those things, He filled me up.
When I poured my heart out to Him, He poured Himself into me.
It was a blessing that sustained me through very difficult times.
Nehemiah 8:10
"...the joy of the LORD is your strength."
The joy of the Lord truly became my strength.
His joy sustained me because I chose to praise Him in that hour of darkness.
Magnifying God is an awesome tool we can use in our prayer lives.
How many times are we given prayer requests that seem beyond our own ability to pray through?
How many times do we question whether or not we're really getting anywhere because the problems seem so big?
The longer I serve Him, it seems prayer requests become more and more desperate.
If I don't keep my focus on the Lord, the weight of those problems could become too much for me.
However, God's arm is never too short. According to Ephesians 3:20, He is able to "do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."
Of course, the ultimate source of the power in our lives is the Holy Spirit, but God has given us many powerful tools to use - such as His Name, His Word, and PRAISE.
Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people.
When we praise Him, He shows up.
No matter what the problem, it will melt like wax in the presence of the Lord.
Praise and thanksgiving are awesome ways to exercise or demonstrate our faith.
It's not always easy to praise the Lord, especially when the challenges we face seem so great.
However, it pleases the Lord when we put our fears and feelings aside to thank Him in advance.
Plus, it stays our minds, keeping them from wandering into the shadows of worry or discouragement.
I can't count how many times I have gone to prayer facing insurmountable odds, only to come out with a note of victory because I magnified God.
There's a very important prayer key here. We must be certain not to miss it.
David, the shepherd boy, was anointed to be king of Israel for many years before he ever took his place on the throne.
When did he take his rightful position?
When the people of Israel "proclaimed" him king.
Even though God said he was king - he did not operate in that capacity until the people gave him that place.
We know that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
There is something to be said about proclaiming Him King in prayer.
It reminds us of how awesome He really is - of His goodness and greatness.
It also gives Him a platform from which to operate.
The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He won't force Himself into certain situations.
It is our responsibility to make room for the Lord - clearing the way for the King of Glory to come in.
Psalm 24:9-10
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory."
This prayer key is important when praying for nations - especially nations that may not be considered Christian.
I have also seen these same principles work very effectively in praying for the terminally ill.
Let's face it, when we know of situations where loved ones are at death's door - those problems seem pretty big.
But which is greater - cancer or God's love? - heart disease or God's mercy? - diabetes or His healing touch?
So what am I trying to say?
The next time we go into the prayer closet - let's make sure that we're not talking about how big the problem is.
Let's make sure we're talking about how BIG God is.
Let's magnify Him, exalting Him as God and King over every circumstance.
By the time we get around to actually praying about "the problem" it will be dwarfed in comparison to the greatness of our God.
It's kind of like going to war behind a giant - one experienced in all types of combat - undefeated in every battle.
It's a lot easier to stay on the side of victory when we hide in the Shadow of the Almighty!
Let us exalt His Name together.
Let's magnify Him!
March / April 2002
A BIGger
GOD - AN
EFFECTIVE
TOOL IN
PRAYER
