Have you ever stopped to think where your focus is? Do you see self before you see Savior? Is the image of your creation self or Savior?
Many might balk at the aforementioned questions, but reality is, if one does not know who they are, they can never know what they have or where they are going. For if we don't know who we are, then the reflection we will see in the water will not be the One who is the Almighty, but the one who is me.
As we enter into the season of thanksgiving, a knowledge of who we are is crucial if we ever want to jump into the waters of thankfulness. Thankfulness
is a state of the heart, and thus, it is rooted in who we are. Engaging who we
are in light of who Jesus is calls for a heart that is passionately pursuing
God. That is, when we seek the light of Christ so that His will might increase
as my will decreases we find the truth of life. But so much of faith today
witnesses not the increase of Jesus, but His decrease.
The
decrease in Jesus has led to the decrease in thankfulness. For true
thankfulness comes when the center of our hearts is occupied not by self, but
by Savior. That is, we cannot find contentment, peace or joy if our focus in
life is the increase of self. Only when we find ourselves seeking to live out
the truth of decreasing will we find
our joy, our peace, our contentment, our thankfulness increasing.
John
the Baptist’s response to Jesus is one that many in his day as well as ours
today, find unintelligible—namely, abounding joy and thankfulness over himself
getting smaller and Jesus getting bigger.
“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. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3.29-30).
Talk
about perspective. John does not try to climb to the stars, seize heaven’s
throne or take matters into his own hands; he receives everything he has,
including his station in life, from God. And unlike many today, John’s Messiah
complex was not about self but about living for the Messiah. And in his
decrease, John’s joy was complete.
To
decrease is not a popular concept because it calls for us to let go of our
control in life. It calls for us to give ourselves wholly to the way from above as opposed to the ways of the
earth. And make no mistake about it, Satan will strike against our attempts to
decrease. He will find what you are good at and make it your god. If you are
good at finances, leadership, communication, athletics, music, academics, you
name it, Satan will use your strengths so as to strangle out any thoughts of
decrease. Daily he pushes us toward a mentality of increase so that eventually
our lives seek to live out the truth of my
will as opposed to Thy Will.
Only
when we embrace the Spirit can the truth of our lives become, “He must increase
but I must decrease.” And in our decrease we come to witness the beautiful
truth of increase. We come to an increasingly greater understanding of the love
that has been shed for our sake. Yes, in Christ and through the Spirit our
hearts are filled with heaven’s joy creating an uprising in thankfulness that
can do nothing but overflow into loving the other just as we have been loved.
