Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas. In season 1, Pastor Jim is leading us in a study of Ephesians. Today’s passage is Ephesians 3:20-21.
One of several New Testament Benedictions. We do well to notice how Paul opened the letter with exclamatory praise and worship and closes the midpoint out with the same.
God is able. Have you ever wondered about God’s ability? Ever asked, “Can God make a rock so big that He can’t pick it up?” Or, “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” While these examples represent intrinsic impossibilities, the best answer I know of is that the only thing God cannot do is stop being God, and all that would entail.
Will I join Jesus in praying, “not my will but thine be done?” (Luke 22)
When I pray to the God of the Bible, I’m not merely engaging in wishful thinking.
God is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. Not just regular “abundantly” but EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY!
Ephesians is refreshingly more concerned with God’s glory than with my individual story. Ephesians is rooted in the nature and character of God, focused on the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ, turns our spiritual eyes in the direction of gaining an eternal perspective. Ephesians is unequivocally Trinitarian in that it draws us nearer to God the Father who does the unimaginable, blows our minds and hearts wide open to the person and work of Christ Jesus who accomplished our salvation, and makes us more receptive to the indwelling presence and life-transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
“The doxology invites us to meditate on God, the One who is much more powerful than we anticipate. This is not an invitation to think up self-centered grocery lists of tasks for God to do. Rather, it is a call to realize God’s unanticipated power to affect change in us, in keeping with the power already working in us.”
– Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians: The NIV Application Commentary
