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PROGRAM D-7720
A few years ago I was talking with a friend who has a painful past to deal with. There was some mental and physical abuse in her childhood, and of course she has struggled with the after-effects. But she was sharing with me how God is healing her and giving her freedom from this painful past.
She said, “Mary, I finally came to the conclusion that I could either magnify my past or magnify my Lord. If I magnify the past, I’ll be defeated and depressed forever. So I’ve chosen to magnify the Lord in my life.”
What are you magnifying in your life today? Are you so focused on the here and now that you can’t see much of anything else? That was the problem for the disciples when Jesus told them that he would be leaving them and they would see him no more—but then he promised that “in a little while” he would return and they would again rejoice.
A saint of old, Amos Wells, wrote: “Heal me of my blindness that blots out eternity with this bit of mortal life close pressed.” I wrote his prayer in my journal several years ago and have often repeated it to the Lord. You and I often need to be healed of the blindness that prevents us from seeing the unseen, from looking with forever eyes. What “bit of mortal life” is closing in around you so much that it is blotting out your view of eternity? What “little while” is stealing your joy and your strength?
The Psalmist said, “O, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.” If you choose to set your sites on the wrong things, and they get magnified, then you’ll find yourself in lots of mental and emotional upheaval. Our challenge, therefore, is to keep our eyes on the Lord.
Will you make a commitment to magnify the Lord? When you do that, it will start to crowd out all the other negative things of this “little while,” and you’ll discover that life is sweeter, Jesus is nearer, and you have a little taste of what it’s going to be like in Heaven when we’ll be right up front and see Jesus face to face.