- Greatness
Psalm 71:21a
Thou shalt increase my greatness,
The promises concerning what God will do for me grow greater every day as I read of them and take them to heart. In this verse the Lord is promising two things: 1) He will increase my greatness, 2) He will comfort me on every side. Today we dwell on the first promise.
I, who am nothing, have been made something; I, a poor, miserable sinner, have been made a rich and ecstatic saint; I, a humble and lowly slave of sin, have been liberated and raised to an exalted status. All this Christ has done for me and now He even promises to increase my greatness. Christ has lifted me out of humility, poverty, slavery and misery and made me great, and now He plans to make me even greater. God is in the business of creating something out of nothing (me); then He makes me more than something: He makes me great; then He increases my greatness.
How can He make me greater? How can He lift me higher? How can He make me holier? Can He make me more righteous? I am already saved to the uttermost; I am already raised up with Him and seated with him in the heavenly places (there is no higher place to go); holy and righteous do not admit of degrees or levels but are already absolutes. What does He mean? “Increasing greatness” means incrementally increasing my awareness of the greatness He has already bestowed on me. I will never fill up the full knowledge of God’s Love (how high, how deep, etc.), nor will I understand how much God’s Grace is super-abounding toward me (I must grow in grace). I do not receive more Love or Grace from God; I simply become more aware of how much there is and how much more there is I haven’t even imagined yet. In the same way the Lord does not make me greater, but He increases my greatness when He, through His Word and Spirit, causes me to realize, recognize and walk into the true greatness I already have, greatness that approaches heights just a little lower than God. I am that great; I just don’t see it yet. The promise is: He will open my eyes to see more and more.