Praise-The act of giving God thanks and worship for who He is and what He has done and will do.  When we personally Praise God we recognize who He is and what He is doing in our lives and will do in our lives because we know we can rely on His promises.  We have already seen many of those promises fulfilled, and we know they are currently being fulfilled in our lives.  Ephesians 1 reveals to us that Gods plan has been laid out in such a way as to bring Him Praise.  In this we can have confidence-that no matter what we are experiencing it is going to bring Him praise because that is the ultimate plan.

Lets look specifically at verses 11-12  "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." (Eph 1:11-12 ) We were chosen!  God knew what you-in your free will-would choose to do with the gospel of Christ.  This choice and us are, as it states in verse 12 "for the praise of His glory".  The very act of you choosing to trust Christ glorifies Him!  So you have already praised God with your life.

Then when we look at verses 13-14 we see the fulfillment of promises that glorify God.  "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory." (Eph 1:13-14 )  So we see here the fulfillment of the promise.  When we hear the truth and believe we receive a seal-the Holy spirit.  The Holy spirit guarantees our inheritance.  That inheritance is our eternal life with Christ-the fulfillment of the promise.  This is all to the praise of his glory.  The very plan of redemption has all been put into place in order that the Lord would receive Praise.

If we know that we are marked with the seal, the Holy spirit, and have been promised eternal life with Chirst that comes with that seal, shouldn’t that be reason enough to praise God for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do in our lives!  No matter what our circumstance now-we know that it is all to the praise of His Glory because that is the ultimate plan.

Everything changes right?  Isn’t that what everyone says, bands sing about, and books get written about?   There are at least 6 artists who have named a song or album "Everything Changes".   Do a book search on Amazon.com for "Everything Changes" and you get over 10,000 results for books!  I think people generally agree that things change.  It is a constant theme and people talk about it on a constant basis.  When was that last time you got together with a group of people and didn’t hear someone ask "whats new?"  We ask because we know things change.

So why then with God does it surprise us when He wants us to change?  We know that we are changing from our former selfs to our new selfs (Eph 4:22-24 ).  This is a time consuming process, not like changing our clothes or getting a haircut to change our appearance.  He is going to mold us for our entire lives, that is quite a long time.  We know He is going to keep molding us and He gave us a helper to remind us of what He said.  John 14:26 says "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (John 14:26 NIV )   Part of the Holy Spirits very purpose is to abide in us, teach us, and guide us. (John 14:16 , John 14:26 , John 16:13 )

The Holy Spirit was given to us to help us see what in our life needs to change.  The Holy Spirit allows us to distinguish our old self from the new self, that which God wants to mold out of us so that we can be molded into what He wants us to be.  This is not always a very comfortable process.  We don’t always want to be molded.  There are sometimes parts of our lives that we would rather not have change.  We would rather believe not everything changes, and not everything needs to change!  There is only one issue with that thought, if God wants to change it, it needs to be on His Anvil.  I believe that God knows what is best for His creation (Gen 1:27 ).  We sometimes think God can’t change some part of us, yet He is capable of more then we can imagine because He is God, and He has given us the power of the Holy Spirit  (Eph 3:20 ).  At times we think God doesn’t know about that area–yet we fool ourselves (Heb 4:13 ).  We may believe that God is not big enough for some issue in our life.  God is big enough, bigger then we can fathom, for He is infinite (1 Kings 8:27 ).

Is there something in your life that you know is like your old self self and not your new self?  Is there something you know God wants to change but you are not letting Him?  Is it for one of these reasons, or some other reason you have come up with?  Well God is big enough, He does know whats best, and He is capable of changing us into our new selfs just as He promises.  Fool yourself no longer into thinking it doesn’t need to change.  As the Holy Spirit guides us through the process of molding we need to be listening.  I challenge you to drag whatever the Holy Spirit has made you aware needs changing unto Gods Anvil for Him to mold.  In prayer we can go to God and ask Him to change us, and He is faithful to do so.  After all, change is something we are in a constant process of with God, the process of constantly changing to be more like Him (Eph4:23-24 ).