The Doxology

While it may not be true in today's church with its obsession to do contemporary worship, back in the days when I was growing up and growing into faith in Christ, worship was predictable.  It was so predictable that it often caused folks to take mental holidays because they knew where they would be when their minds ceased from wandering.  One of the things that made my childhood worship predictable was its use of some of the liturgy of the church.  It was not just "The Lord's Prayer" which was deemed worthy of an every Sunday repeat.

 

One of those other parts of the liturgy was the Doxology.  At the appointed moment everyone would rise and begin singing, "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow..."  There is some good theology in those words learned early and remembered still even after a life time of living.  The reality that all blessings flow from the heart of God was mostly lost upon me as a child, but hopefully now after years of singing those words, they have taken root in my heart.

Blessings are like gifts.  To be blessed by God is to be gifted by God.  To be gifted by God is to receive from Him what He chooses to give and what we only receive because of His gracious kindness.  The blessing, or gifting of God does not come to us because we are worthy of it, or because we have earned it.  The gifting of God is about His grace being expressed in gracious, diverse, and surprising measures.  The more we realize this truth about the blessings being received in our life, the more loudly we want to sing the words of the Doxology, "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow..."