Spirit Daily

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Magnify God And You'll Bring A Positive Force To Your Life, With Eyes Of Eternity

By Michael H. Brown

No doubt about it: we live in serious times, and it's counterproductive to ignore that. Every day, we see a litany of sobering stories. But this never gets us down. It doesn't steal our joy -- that is, it doesn't steal our joy if we have the bigger picture. And the big picture is that we live forever after this test called life on earth.

Want to feel better about your life? Focus on that. Magnify the positive. Think of all the good that has come your way. Reflect on the problems you have avoided or have overcome and especially magnify God.

They are one and the same: God and the positive. When we accent them -- when we acknowledge them, and when we focus on what is good -- we give God glory and rise above the storm clouds. When we focus on God, He draws us up. He dispels the darkness. When we pray and exalt Him, when we praise Him, He grants us a larger,  clearer vision. 

There's the old saying, "count your blessings," but we'd like to expand that into "meditate on your blessings."

When we do, when we truly take the time to realize what God has done for us, we find tranquility because we enter into a closer relation with the Lord.

The other night, we heard a preacher speaking about this: storm clouds. He made an excellent point. Down in Texas, the weather had been lousy with nine straight days of rain and he was boarding a plane as he contemplated the terrible weather. So dreary! He wondered: would it ever end? But as the plane rose, he realized something remarkable: while it was dark below, while it seemed like the gloom was there to stay, the plane quickly rose to an altitude where the sun was brightly shining. It wasn't that the sun had gone away -- just that he had been mired in a dark place. 

This is true in our lives. The sun never darkens. It is only where we are and what we do and how we think that cloud our sunlight. It's a matter of our perspective. It's the enemy who tries to make everything seem bleak: after all, he's the the prince of darkness. But we don't have to listen to him. We don't have to become ensnared in his traps. It's a question of hope. It's a question of faith. It's knowing that victory is proportionate to expectation. Praise God. Exalt Him. Realize what He has done. Love Him for the very fact of creation -- and even for our suffering, which causes us to spiritually develop. When we do that, when we magnify the Lord, He grants us the larger, higher vision, the "eyes of eternity." When we magnify Him -- when we exalt what is good, when we look for the good in everyone and every thing -- we part those storm clouds. No matter what happens in life, we must always hold firm to the knowledge that we live forever, and we must view all events in life from that altitude.

[Resources: The Spiritual Secrets of a Trappist Monk, Introduction to the Devout Life, Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer, and Miracle Moments]