Magnify the Lord: Why Your Problem Is Smaller Than You Think

I’m excited to share something today that wrecked me when God showed it to me — and it’ll wreck you too, in the best possible way.

We’ve been walking through what Abraham did to receive from God. He started with a promise. He got to know the God who gave it. He made a choice to believe. But today I want to talk about the one thing that holds all of that together — and the one thing most believers never actually do.

Magnify the Lord over your problem.

You heard it — but do you know it?

Before we get there, I need to address something. Some of you have been following this series and thinking, “I’ve heard this before.” Let me push back on that.

Paul said, “For me to say these same things to you is not tedious — for you it is safety.” Peter said he would not stop reminding people of these things as long as he was alive. And science tells us we need to hear something a minimum of seven times before it genuinely gets down on the inside of us.

Hearing it is not the same as knowing it. When I train someone in firearms or tactics, there are three stages: shown, taught, and trained. Trained means you can do it under stress. Until you can apply it when the pressure is on, you haven’t truly learned it. The Word of God works the same way. Keep going back. Keep feeding on it. Don’t stop because you’ve heard it once.

The problem isn’t that God is small — it’s that you’re magnifying the wrong thing.

Romans 4:17 says Abraham believed in the presence of Him whom he believed — God. Not a god. God. And I’m convinced that most of us, even those who’ve been saved for years, don’t actually sit with that.

The Psalms say “Magnify the Lord with me.” Now, a magnifying glass doesn’t change the size of what it’s pointed at. But it makes the object bigger to you. And that’s exactly what you need to do with God. Make Him bigger to you than your problem.

Because right now, some of you are sitting there thinking, “You don’t understand. This is cancer. This is $100,000 in credit card debt. This is the economy. You just don’t understand.” What you’re actually saying — even if you’d never say it out loud — is that your problem is bigger than God.

He split the Red Sea with a snort.

The Ten Commandments. The Prince of Egypt. Every movie version of the Red Sea crossing has this sweeping music and this dramatic moment of power. And it should be dramatic to us. But do you know what the Scripture says?

He did it with the breath from His nostrils.

Just a snort. And the sea split and they walked on dry ground. That’s all it cost Him. Not a great effort. Not a significant expenditure of power. A snort.

That’s who you’re bringing your problem to. The One who spoke the worlds into existence. The One who can recreate every cell in your body. The One for whom splitting a sea was nothing more than clearing His throat.

And it wouldn’t even dim the lights of Heaven.

It’s all Andes mints to Him.

I need to tell you about a dinner in Jacksonville. My wife Terry and her friend wanted to try a French restaurant. At the end of the meal, I tried to pay the bill — and the other guy got irate.

“Nobody pays for the food that goes in my mouth. I pay for that.” Fine. We split it.

On the way out, I grabbed five Andes mints for a quarter from the dish by the door. And I offered him one. He took it, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth — the same man who couldn’t let anyone pay for his dinner.

On the inside I was judging him. You hypocrite. You’ll let me pay for the mint but not the meal.

And then the Lord spoke up. He said, “I wouldn’t judge him too harshly. You do the exact same thing to Me. These problems you’ve been struggling over — you’re acting like there’s this enormous cost, this impossible price. But son, don’t you know it’s all Andes mints to Me?”

It’s all Andes mints. Your cancer, your debt, your broken relationship, your impossible situation — it’s an Andes mint to the God who split seas with His nostrils.

Start your prayer where the early church started theirs.

In Acts Chapter 4, after the disciples were released from persecution and threats, they gathered and prayed. And this is how they started:

“Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them.”

— Acts 4:24 (NKJV)

They didn’t start with their problem. They started by reminding themselves — and each other — of who they were talking to.

“You are God Almighty. You made all of this. What we’re about to bring You is nothing compared to You.”

That’s how your prayer life needs to start. That’s how your walk of faith needs to be anchored. Before you bring the problem, magnify the Lord. Make Him bigger than the cancer, bigger than the bill, bigger than whatever is screaming at you today.

He is the God that makes dry bones live. He is the God that shows up. He is the God that does what He says. And He wants to be that God to you.

Fight To Win. Start today.