Doxology

      What do you do when you really get excited about something?  I have prepared a lot of sermons and lessons over the last 50 years and I always had a process that was similar in most cases.  I would write out the material as if I was going to read it word for word, even though I never did.  We were once told to always write out the introduction and the closing so you could get started and end as  you thought you should.  Well, I wrote out the whole thing and there would be  times when  I would get to a certain point and the excitement would overcome me and I would find myself standing up or walking around ready to shout.  I often wished I was preaching it at that moment.  The following passage in Ephesians is one where it seems Paul got excited and all of a sudden erupted in a Doxology of praise To God for what He was doing in the lives of the believers.  Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”   We can easily see what is going on.  Paul has just set forth all of their wonderful blessings that they possess by being “In Christ.”  Their spiritual bank account is overflowing.  It makes no difference what is going on around them as they are blessed beyond measure and so Paul pronounces this doxology.  Have things changed in the past 2000 years?  God’s Word is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  It will never change.  God remains the same and His promises remain the same.  Do we have any less to praise God for then did Paul at the time the Book of Ephesians was written?  Obviously, we answer “no” to those thoughts.  Our excitement over the things of God often wanes in the force of the world’s things and we find ourselves overcome with discouragement, depression. Loneliness and loss of hope.  That should not be the case but we should be standing up and praising God for the fact that we also are “In Christ.”  So, be encouraged today and all of the days of our life because God doesn’t change and we can rely on Him each and every day.  Praise God today for His immutable character.