Increase Him, Decrease Self

He must increase, but I must decrease.

-John 3:30

Are we decreasing ourselves or God? We want more of Him and we complain about feeling stagnant, yet we never spend time with Him. How can He increase in our daily lives if we aren't spending time with Him? He must increase, I must decrease. Spending time with Him requires us putting ourselves aside. My time, my convenience, my feeling... die to self. If we constantly say reading the Bible and spending time with God just isn't convenient or we just don't have time, we will never spend time with Him. The devil loves to make us busy, or better yet, create an illusion of busy. The devil creates an illusion of busy and makes us make exceptions for other things. For example you're too busy... except for when it comes to watching TV, except for scrolling through social media, except forrrrr... we make excuses to do other things. But we only make excuses to NOT read the Bible. What if we normalized making excuses TO read the Bible? He. Must. Increase. The devil wants us to make exceptions for the world, but exclusions for God. I can watch TV, scroll through social media, whatever, but I am too busy for God. I'm too tired to spend time with God, but let me go do these other things that require more energy. There will never be the perfect time or the most convenient time to spend time with Him, because the devil is actively working to make sure there isn't. That's why we must MAKE time. Not just find time for God in our lives. If we do not make time for God, the devil will make sure we never find time for God. Not only is this a daily task that requires much diligence. It requires us to die to ourselves. Die to our wants, what is most convenient to us. Him increasing requires us sacrificing ourselves. He did it for us, why can't we do it for Him and spending time with Him? Decreasing ourselves is not easy, because the world tells us to do the opposite. The devil wants us to glorify self instead of glorifying the One and only One who deserves the glory.

I put a note with this verse on it and taped it to my bathroom mirror. It's a reminder that, not only reminds me to make time for Him in my day, but it also reminds me to put Him first. It is a very humbling verse. Something we all could use. Reminding myself of this truth reminds me who I am living for. It is easy in this world to forget who we are living for, but it's Him, it's always Him. It's not for likes or comments, for other people, or for the world, our purpose is to live for Him. For Him to increase results in us decreasing. In everything. It really is life transforming.

He MUST increase. I MUST decrease.