Increase and Decrease

UV 836/10,000 Increase and Decrease Joh 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease Our attitude towards God and His Son Jesus should be that of John the Baptist’s: “ He must increase but I must decrease.” It implies that we must always give God the credit for any success we have in life, that we must give glory and thanks to the Lord for all the good that has happened in our lives. In proportion to the extent we humble ourselves, the Lord is exalted in our lives. We cannot strangulate our own egos in a single day but over a lifetime we must learn not to feed our egos or feel proud of ourselves, of what we have achieved or acquired or what we have done for the Lord. Our self love needs to decline even as His agape love increases. Even in winning souls for Christ, our role is at best like that of John the Baptist-that of the Bridegroom’s friend- the best man. We need to rejoice as the joy of the Lord is complete. In His joy we must find our pleasure. In His presence, we must learn to delight as a friend in the company of His best friend. The relationship between Saul’s son Jonathan and David is a good example of our relationship. Jonathan had a right to the throne of Israel but since he knew that David was anointed or chosen for the throne over him, he was not only willing to forego his inheritance but he warned David of his father’s evil designs on the latter’s life. The result was that many years later David showed kindness and favour to Jonathan’s son and allowed him to have food on the royal table. We must yield to a greater and greater role for Jesus to take charge of different areas of our lives. The Word of God must increase its grip on our thoughts, words and actions even as increase our grip or knowledge of the Word. We must subject our goals and desires to the scrutiny and approval of the Lord which we seek at every point in prayer. As we burn like candles for the Lord, our own temporal priorities will gradually loose its importance vis a vis the eternal agenda of God. Our relationship with Christ is like the relationship between the sun and the moon in the day time. As the light from the sun at dawn increases, the moon begins to fade and wane. Prateep V Philip