He Must Increase

John 3:30 (AMP) He must increase [in prominence], but I must decrease.

Have you ever felt like you needed more of Jesus but something was hindering your relationship with Him? Oftentimes that hindrance is our own selfish desires. We want things done a certain way or we feel like we have a great idea and so we try to do things in our own strength. The bottom line is we were never intended to do life without the strength of Christ aiding us. We can cry out for more of Jesus but if we are full of self then He has no place to go.

If we refuse to let go of certain things in our lives then we are denying Christ access to those things and He cannot truly be Lord over them. It can be tough to sit down and be completely honest with ourselves. There are things in our lives that we may want to keep quiet or hidden because we aren't ready to "deal with it." The truth is, postponing these meetings with ourself and Jesus only prolongs the healing process.

God will reveal things slowly and heal us in one area then we may feel great and think everything is wonderful until suddenly another area of our life is revealed to us that we are still trying to control and the process begins again. The good news is each time we go through these healing processes, Christ is increasing in our lives and so the less it hurts to deny our flesh of what it really wants. The best way to kill something is to starve it. So when our flesh is crying out to do its own thing, we say no and say no and say no over and over again until it no longer has a desire for what once pleased it. It's just like dieting; our bodies will beg for chocolate cake and brownies and anything sweet once we decide to stop eating sugar but after a week or two of refusing it, your body will begin to crave healthy foods because you starved it of sugar.

If we really want more of Jesus in our lives we have to be willing to give up some of the selfish desires we have so we can make more time for Jesus - in prayer, worship, thanksgiving, petition and awe of the one who gave His life just for us. May we always desire to decrease so He may continually increase in our lives.

John 3:29-30 (MSG) That's why my cup is running over. This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.