All Things for Jesus

I was probably in grade school, but I still remember my mother getting up during a testimony time in our small church and quoting with deep feeling - even tears - Paul’s doxology in the last verses of Romans 11:

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 

“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

So I, too, have committed these verses to memory. Every phrase is so rich I never feel I exhaust its truths.

I enjoy thinking about the application behind “for from him and through him and to him are all things.” When we think something of significance originated with us, we’ve lost sight of these truths. All the ideas, creativity, abilities come from Him. We do them through His strength, and they are all to Him for His glory. If not, they are nothing. “By myself I can do nothing,” Jesus said. That’s true of us, too, so He tells us, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Thank You, Lord, for giving us the grace to want all things to be for You.

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19).