Come magnify the Lord with me

 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.  Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
~Psalm 34:1-3

In addition to these verses being current memory work for me, the final verse here was the theme of my wedding almost 31 years ago.  In those 31 years, God has never been anything but gracious to me.   And I have learned much through his providential dealing with me, though I have usually not liked it at the time. 

Just this morning I was talking with a friend about how, in our youth and naivete, we prayed for things that we know better than to pray later: we pray for patience, without understanding the kind of waiting required to learn patience, for example.  I remember as a newly wed looking at the married couples at our church who had been married for 30 or more years, and seeing Jesus shine from their faces, and praying that, one day, he might shine through my face like that.  Well, I don't know how much shining is happening, but I certainly did not know what I was asking for.  Because what is it that makes us reflect Christ?  The refiner's fire, that's what.  The place that is hot and miserable and painful.  That's where the dross is consumed and the gold is refined so that the reflection is pure.

I sometimes think that as I age, I become more and more a coward, because I am more and more afraid to pray for the hard things.  Even with my experience of this life past 50 years, and knowing how good and gracious God always is, I am afraid to ask him to kill my sin and make me hate it, to cause me to love others in costly ways, or to refine me so that reflection of Jesus grows more and more clear. Then we're back to the whole slavery thing i talked about yesterday...

The good news is, Gentle Readers, God knows what is good for us, sees through our fear and out excuses, and brings it our way for our good and his glory.  So come, magnify the Lord with me, friends, and let us exalt his name together!