Ephesians 3:21

This verse is the closing line of a prayer written by the Apostle Paul — a Jewish leader who became one of the most influential followers of Jesus in the early church. He wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus, a major city in what is now western Turkey. Paul has just prayed for believers to grasp the full dimensions of God's love (verses 17-19) and declared that God is able to do 'immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine' (verse 20). This final verse erupts into what's called a doxology — a burst of praise — declaring that God deserves glory displayed in the church and in Christ Jesus, not for a season, but across every generation, without end. It's Paul's way of saying: this story is eternal.

God, You deserve far more glory than I remember to give You. Thank You for placing Your glory in the middle of something as ordinary and messy as the church — and for including me in it anyway. May what I do this week point back to You. For ever and ever. Amen.

Paul was in prison when he wrote this. Not in a cathedral having a mountaintop moment — in chains. And from that cell, he wrote 'for ever and ever.' There's a wild, almost defiant confidence in those words. He's just spent three verses trying to describe a love 'that surpasses knowledge' — love too large for human comprehension — and his conclusion is that the only fitting response is glory with no expiration date. Not until the next crisis. Not until the next generation forgets. Forever. Here's what that means for you on an ordinary Tuesday: the church — not a building, but the gathered, imperfect, sometimes bickering, occasionally beautiful community of people trying to follow Jesus — is where God has chosen to put His glory on display. Not in a throne room. Not in some distant future. Here. Now. In you, in the people who frustrate you at church, in the community that shows up with meals when everything falls apart. You are part of something that will outlast every empire, every cultural trend, every crisis that feels enormous right now. That is not a small thing to carry into your week.