for thought and meditation

[Markopolo]

29f and still clear..


Decreasing for His Purpose
By Oswald Chambers

He must increase, but I must decrease. —John 3:30

If you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.” Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.”

Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. “…the friend of the bridegroom…rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness— at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.

Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).

have a blessed day

[Boaz]

Good lesson for today . Thanks Marko .

[Blackwater]

Outstanding post! The Lord wants each of his children to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining. It may be PC to be "a village," but it's not the Lord's plan at all. We are each of us, including any we bring to the fold, to be as self-sufficient and self-sustaining as humanly possible. New "recruits" need help and constant care to keep them from drifting astray, but the goal must always be for them to be solidly fixed on Christ in and of their own free wills. No, that ain't easy, and it takes study, and constant self-regulation and reminding ourselves of who and what we are, and who and what Christ is, and how much what we choose to do matters, but it IS doable, IF we keep our aim where it needs to be, and not on our own will or our own desires and whimsies.

[Wayne Smith]

And fears, Blackwater. As a therapist I have done this many times and am in the process again now. If desires don't derail God's process our fears will. We need to counsel to stay the course and trust God rather than our way, based on desire or fear.

[USMC87]

God's way is the only way, Amen!

[Blackwater]

Thanks, Wayne. You're right. Fear is insidious and terribly destructive. That's one of the great values of Christ's love and His promises. If we accept His offer fully, we have nothing left to fear. Nothing, not even death, can harm us. At death, we just metamorphose, like a butterfly leaving its cocoon, into another inhabitant of Paradise, where there is no fear, nor pain nor suffering. What a wonderful day that will be. It's the culmination of many, many battles we fight here, in order to get there. Do we worship a wonderful and caring Lord, or what?