He must increase, but I must decrease.
[27] John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. [28] You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ [29] The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. [30] He must increase, but I must decrease.”
(John 3:27-30 ESV)
I think we as Christians forget these 2 points John made often,
1. Not one thing we have isn’t from heaven. We are very independent people, and we like to believe that we do things on our own. Lets face it, we do nothing by ourselves. Everything in our lives is touched by God. Waking up in the morning, having money to live, friends and family to stay by your side, having a church to fellowship with, every single thing is given to us by God. Everything we receive should be taken while giving back praise to God. I know I thank God every morning I wake up late for class without an alarm, not that that is a concrete example, and I am as much as a fail at praising Him when need be than the next person. I think we should try to realize the things that God does for us, it could take some time to get used to it, but just think about Him during your day and praise him for having your back, even when you don’t know His plan.
2. Another fact we forget in the daily rush of our lives is that God must take precedent in our lives. We should do things for His glory, not just our own. This is hard for me personally, I know that I don’t praise and thank Him enough for all the blessings I have received. John says that He must increase, and he must decrease. We should decrease as the motivation for things in our lives, we should do things for God’s glory, and not ours. We should do things because we know God would find Joy in them, and in turn that should make us happy. Motivation should not be for ourselves only. When the rush of the day is at it’s peak, we should ask God and praise him for the strength to get through it and to excel with his strength and power,
