“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
I attended 4th Presbyterian Church in Spokane, Washington during my Junior High and High School years. We sang the doxology every Sunday.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Amen.
I was a young 2 Corinthians 5:17 Christian, naïve and completely unaware of the snares and pitfalls of life. I rushed through open doors and experienced successes and black belt punishments. I didn't know I was justified, sanctified or holy but suspected I was called to bear the name of Jesus. I played ball, ran track and tried to stay out of trouble.
Singing the doxology every Sunday was a comfort but I didn’t know why. I didn't know theology or the meanings behind the gospel message. Why was I being protected, nurtured and gently guided by God? I don't know, perhaps the fruit of praying grandmothers.
Years later, in Menlo Park, CA., I ran into Helen Asazawa. She was passing through the neighborhood the spring of 1964 heading for grad school in Seattle. I needed someone special … and she was very special and so much more. I wasn't the guy she was looking for, she admitted later in life, but she knew in her heart it was right. “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think”.
I have had so many opportunities to serve my Lord. Opportunities missed because I wasn't ready. I wasn't disciplined in or by faith, I knew without knowing. My heart was always true, but my flesh was not yet trained by faith. Still, God faithfully, gently was working in His child.
Over time God’s breaks through our callousness with hearing. The valleys can be dark and foreboding. We often lose our way not knowing He watches where we are all the while we think we are wandering. When the sun of His presence occasionally breaks through we bask in the warmth of His love but when the clouds obscure His love we slide back into our ways.
The story of deliverance out of Egypt was the standard of salvation for the Israelites. God provided the protection of the Red Sea, manna from heaven and a pillar of fire by night. They built idols and continued their complaining ways.
The New Testament standard for salvation is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the riches of glory at the right hand of the Father. This resurrection power lays dormant in the heart of every believer waiting our consumption while we idly play at religion.
God reigns! The glory and dominion of almighty God is evident all around us. It beckons our hearts to pick it up and put it in our right hand. It cries out to the saints with the risen Lord abiding in their hearts while we debate how best to serve the power giver. What is wrong with this picture?
God bestows mercy and grace so that by His good works we can glorify Him. In the words of an old chorus, “We are his because he made us, we are his because he bought us, we are his because we gave our life to Him.” If we choose not to participate in His grace, He reigns without our participation! Why do we sit on the sidelines, not consuming His available grace?
God is faithfully drawing us to Himself even while we persist in our unbelief. While He reigns, He is both able and willing to succor us into His own Holy Spirit. His success in us depends upon our will which He respects, we were made in His image! Our sense of Him is much larger than our experience of Him, because we depend on our own self. “We have met the enemy and it is us!” Resurrection power is contained in His grace but to unlock its source is to be intimate with Christ Himself. We must die daily. This is why He daily knocks on the door of our heart seeking our fellowship.
There is never an end to our learning and there is never an end to our vulnerability while in this flesh. Our journey is salted with both suffering and joy. We soon discover a sine wave is part of our training. The more severe our suffering, the more complete is our praise at the end of our suffering. The higher the amplitude of our discomfort, the sweeter is the experience of His grace. At the end of each cycle there is a little doxology, i.e., an increase of knowledge and faith. A doxology is an expression of reality about who we are and who God is! It is a reality we experience because God is forming in us a reality larger than reason can grasp.
We may be in a season when our circumstances are so severe we don't hear the doxologies after our cycles of discomfort. There are many reasons we harden our hearts while claiming spiritual vitality. During these times we need to pray for each other. Not only are we to pray for “Thy will be done” but also “protect us from the evil one”. God is always mindful of the hairs on our head and the needs of our souls and will faithful continue what he has already started. He is waiting for our participation.
His supply of grace fuel is beyond our capacity to consume. He takes delight refueling our spent tank. It glorifies Him glorifying us because our glory is in Him. When we are in Him more of Him gets into us and we express hymns and doxologies.
I think next week we might Drill Down Ephesians 3:21-22.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”