piper magnifies

John Piper describes what it means to glorify God. It is similar to the words beautify and magnify. We need to be careful with these. We do not add glory, beauty, or size to God when we do these things. We simply see Him in better perspective and reflect that back and/or out.

Magnify has two distinct meanings. In relation to God, one is worship and one is wickedness. You can magnify like a telescope or like a microscope. When you magnify like a microscope, you make something tiny look bigger than it is. A dust mite can look like a monster. Pretending to magnify God like that is wickedness. But when you magnify like a telescope, you make something unimaginably great look like what it really is. ... Magnifying God like that is worship.

Connecting with God is not meant to be done alone. If we are truly His, others will see God more clearly as they look at us. We are in a sense, "telescopes". As disciples, we see Him more clearly, we take on His likeness, and then others see Him more clearly. They see in us rightness, compassion, love - they see the Kingdom.

Let us glorify God in all that we say and do so that others might come to know the King of Kings as He really is.

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