DOXOLOGY:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him, all creatures here below

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

I just ate a banana. As I peeled it, I was thankful for my wife who remembered to buy it yesterday. I was thankful for the store that carried that product, and the produce manager who brought it out of the box and onto the shelf. I was thankful for the trucker who shipped it, and the dock worker in Charleston who expedited the rapid distribution of that perishable product to a local supermarket. I was thankful for the ship, and the captain, and the crew and even the thousands of people who extracted the fuel out of the ground to power the ship. I was thankful for the farmer in Honduras who swung the machete and harvested that huge stalk of bananas and got it to port in a timely manner. I was thankful for the fertilizer supplier and the irrigation manager for helping the farmer grow a good crop. I was thankful for the Sun, which at 93 million miles away provided the perfect amount of energy to the leaves of that banana tree. But ultimately, I was thankful for the One who turned on the sun and designed the DNA of the banana. I’m sure I’ve missed some key points along the supply chain. Each point along that chain is called a “resource.”. The “re” in “resource” is important. All resources are dependent on something else. Their value is in their ability to deliver “life” in the form of necessary products along a supply chain. Break just one part of that chain, and the flow of resources stops.

When we follow the supply chain of resources, we reach the “source” of it all. Ultimately, we encounter the ONE who spoke our sun into existence and who spoke the banana into life. God is not a “resource,” He is the SOURCE. When I ultimately say, “thank you Father, for this banana,” I am rightly recognizing Him as the SOURCE of that blessing. I am living out doxology! The word doxology comes from two Greek words: Doxa = Glory and logia = saying. In other words, when I attribute a blessing to the rightful source of anything in my life, I am completing the loop of doxology. I am saying “God, YOU ALONE are the SOURCE of this blessing in my life! All of the GLORY goes to you. Thank you for sustaining all the resources to bring this blessing to me, and I ACKNOWLEDGE AS YOUR BELOVED CHILD THAT THIS IS ULTIMATELY FROM YOU!”

If I do not complete the loop of doxology, I have disconnected somehow from God. This is why Paul, in his majestic treatise to the Christians in Rome would write that “although [sinful humans] knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21) The travesty of Adam’s sin is that his offspring have lost the ability to glorify God — to display and reproduce His image upon the earth and ultimately point their lives in thanksgiving back to Him. Eleven chapters later, Paul would write his doxology — the conclusion of what the fullness of the gospel he had so eloquently written about would fulfill: “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” God alone is the source of ALL THINGS. He owes us nothing, and we owe Him everything. He is the SOURCE of every good thing. And when we ultimately connect back to Him through Jesus, then, and only then, do we begin to naturally bear fruit and give the glory back to Him that He alone deserves.

As you read John 15 this week, notice carefully how clearly Jesus spells out the truth of doxology and how important it is to connect to Him practically to see this accomplished in your life. Meditate on the key resources that Jesus highlights that make your connection to Him come to life. Notice the relationship of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and how all three are working in concert to re-connect you to a fruitful and meaningful life that gives glory where glory is due. Reflect on all that God has provided to you and complete the loop of doxology by thanking Him as the source of all spiritual and physical resources.