Consider: What was the last thing that you magnified?
Learn: Read Luke 1:46-55. This first Song for the Savior is often called the Magnificat, and that’s not because it’s about cats! Luke 1:46-55 is often called the Magnificat because that is the first word of the song in the Latin translation. The word for magnify or make great also begins the song in the Greek. Mary learned this from Hannah, who also began her song with the same phrase.
To magnify is to make something bigger, and you can magnify in a couple of different ways. You could put a very small thing under a microscope to be able to see it better by magnifying it. You could also use a telescope, through which you could look at something very large or very far away, like a star, and see it up closer than you can with just your eyes.
The second way is the way in which Mary magnified God. God is larger than we can comprehend, so we don’t need to make him bigger than he is; that would be impossible! But we can make him bigger and greater than he seems to other people by worshipping and exalting him for how great he is.
Notice the connection between exalting the greatness of God and the joy that it brings to the soul and spirit. To magnify God means to get a better view of how wonderful he really is, to bring his bigness closer, like one would when studying our galaxy and solar system. God doesn’t get bigger, but he is enlarged in our hearts.
Apply: How can you magnify, rejoice in, and exalt the greatness of God today?
I Commend Joy! 