Strategies for Protecting Your Peace

“Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Ps. 34:3, ESV).

What does it mean to magnify the Lord? Dictionary.com provided me with these definitions of the word magnify: “To increase the apparent size of, as a lens does;” “To cause to seem greater or more important.”

Here’s what Holy Spirit is speaking to my heart about this. During these difficult times, we can either magnify what the enemy is doing, or magnify what the Lord is doing. How so? By what we choose to focus on.

A magnifying glass aids us when we want to zero in on something specific. It causes whatever we are looking at to fill our visual field. Similarly, when we magnify the Lord, He is what fills our inner visual field.

In this season of worldwide crisis, it’s easy to let the enemy’s activities predominate our mind’s eye. So many news articles and broadcasts come with spirits of fear attached to them. Even just one click-bait headline can transfer to us a sense of foreboding that sets the tone of our entire day, or of multiple days.

How do we remedy this? My beloved friend, we need to be so aggressive in purposefully cultivating the right spiritual atmosphere both in our homes and in our hearts. When we wake up in the morning, let’s immediately point our hearts toward Jesus. Let’s practice looking at Him with our inner eyes regularly, throughout the day. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:2).

This is a discipline, a lifestyle. It takes concerted effort to train our focus on the Lord. During the day, when fear tries to slip in uninvited, take notice. Stop. On purpose, begin to magnify the Lord. Begin to exalt Him. Begin to focus your heart on how infinitely powerful and infinitely loving and infinitely wise He is. Don’t allow yourself to push on through the day until you have directed your heart’s focus entirely back onto Jesus.

When anxiety tries to settle oppressively over your soul, allow Holy Spirit to show you where it came in. What is it that the enemy subtly whispered to you that you should worry about? Identify it and actively hand it over to the Father. See yourself giving it to Him, entrusting it into His care. Snuggle into His bosom. Choose trust. Choose rest. And ask Him, “What are You doing in this situation, Daddy?” Take time to listen for His answer.

He will answer. He delights to communicate with you, even more than you long to hear from Him. Learning to listen for His answers is a life-long journey of discovery. Write down every big and tiny thing that seems like it’s from Him.

Once He’s showed you something about what He’s doing, keep it in front of your eyes. Whether it be a note on your phone, or a verse jotted on a slip of paper, look at it frequently. Let it be your focus. Magnify it. Let it fill your inner space. Make sure it’s the biggest thing happening on the inside of you.

One final loving word of advice. Dear one, for every one look at the hard things happening during this season, take ten looks at Jesus.

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2, NKJV).

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Do you see God at work in the world right now? What do you see Him doing?