The Gathering Place Where Family Matters

One word focus for today: magnify.

I am no longer a young man. There are times that no matter how I hold something or what angle I try to twist it into, I just can’t see the little print any longer. Recently I was supposed to electronically renew a medication prescription. For the life of me, I couldn’t read the fine print of the pharmacy phone number, and to be truthful, I even struggled to read the tiny print of the prescription number. Now on my writing desk is a very useful tool. I am using it more and more frequently. It is a device to magnify hard to read little print.

Magnify. A simple dictionary definition would include the wording of increasing the size, to cause to be greater, to make greater importance of a person or situation, to praise or to extol. All of these are found in the simple word “magnify.”

Think of a couple wonderful verses of Scripture for your day today.

“O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together” (Psalm 34:3).
“I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30).
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord” (Luke 1:46).

This magnifying the Lord gives the idea of making Him clearly seen in our lives because He holds the greatest place in our hearts, deserves the highest praise and thanksgiving, and frankly we become smaller and smaller while He becomes greater and greater to us.

In our busy day today, let’s you and me be sure to live clearly, graciously, and Godly as we magnify the Lord.

One word focus for today: sing!
Even those of us who will never be asked to do special music in a worship service can still sing unto the Lord! You will be in great company if part of your daily worship involves singing.

Think of Moses. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the LORD for He hath triumphed gloriously” (Exodus 15:1).

Think of Hezekiah. “Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped” (2 Chronicles 29:30).

Think of David. “I will be glad and rejoice in Thee: I will sing praise to Thy name, O Thou most High” (Psalm 9:2).

Think of Isaiah. “Sing unto the LORD; for He hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth” (Isaiah 12:5).

Think of Paul. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16).

There are plenty more verses we could read. The word “sing” appears 119 times in the Bible. “Singing” appears 29 times and “sang” 12 times. So today, my friends, choose to sing to the Lord quietly or out loud at the top of your voice. Either way, just sing. Think of the words that you are singing. Think of the rich Biblical content of songs, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing often. The Lord loves this and you will be blessed.

One word focus for today: continue.

“I quit. I’m done. I don’t believe any of this anymore!” and with that he walked out of my office.

“I just want you to know that I am still living for the Lord after placing my trust in Him over thirty years ago. It is such a joy to live for the Lord and to know Him.”

Two men, about the same age, with two different outcomes. One walked away and rejected the Lord. The other trusted Him and is still walking with Him decades later. “Continue” surely describes the second man.

Think of what John 8:31 says about the word “continue.”

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed.”

A few chapters later the Lord Jesus said, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love” (John 15:9).

In both verses the word continue is meno (MEN-o) and literally means not to depart, to remain, to abide.

You and I both have been witnesses to dear people who seem interested in the Lord, learn a little about Him, even exhibit enthusiasm, and then somehow they drift away, lose interest, and turn back. On the other hand, recently I had the joy of being contacted by a man to whom I had ministered nearly thirty-five years ago. He is joyfully continuing on with the Lord Jesus.

How does one “continue” with the Lord. Well, there isn’t some legal list of things to check off. However, I do believe it will be manifested by these evident blessings.

Investing moments in the Word.
Talking with Him throughout the day.
Thinking of Him often.
Lifting frequently our voices of praise.
Telling others about what He is doing in your life.
Working on remembering something that spoke to you in the Word today.

Continue. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I find joy in doing. I’m sure that this is true about you as well.

One word focus for today: good.

What a common word. Good! We use it so often that we don’t even think of it.

Thanks for supper. It was so good.
Thanks for your suggestion. It was really good.
Thanks for sitting still in Sunday school today. You were such a good boy!
Plus a hundred other ways.

Did you know that the word “good” is found frequently in the Scriptures? It is! In fact the word “good” is found 720 times in 655 verses in the King James Version of the Scriptures. Selecting one verse is not easy when there are so many! I am eager to share the verse that has blessed me this very day.

“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7). The LORD is good. The word “good” is tob and means to be wholesome, pleasant, beautiful, greatly abundant, kind.

Even in the day of trouble He is good. He is a stronghold. He knows personally and intimately every detail of our lives. I know that you could add your name to the list of Christ-followers who have experienced the goodness of the Lord on the hardest of days. Isn’t He amazing?
Trust Him today.

One word focus for today: trust.

Think of two pointed and powerful verses. Both contain the word “trust.”

“For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God…” (1 Timothy 4:10).

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, Who giveth us richly all things” (1 Timothy 6:17)

In both verses the word “trust” is elpizo (el-PID-zo) which gives the idea of setting one’s hope upon someone or something. It gives the sense of joy and full confidence, “hopefully trusting in.”

While most folks who read my Daily Prescriptions might not consider themselves to be rich, in comparison with many dear people around the world, we are very rich indeed. To us, the Lord cautions us not to get “trusting” in our riches but in the living God Himself. Such trust in the living God will cause us to walk differently in this world than those who living with greedy ambitions.

Let’s be watching how we can have full confidence in our awesome Lord today, and may such “trust” be an evident testimony to those around us.