"He must become greater; I must become less."
- John 3 : 30
This is our portion of scripture for this week.
In the passage, Jesus is talking to the crowd about John and His ministry.
John's words depict nothing but total obedience to the God over his life and ministry.
But even Jesus Himself demonstrated such obedience...But then again, if we study Jesus' ministry, we'll see He was obedient to God His Father, even to the cross.
"...Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22 : 42)
Now, we know Jesus is our role model (1 Corinthians 11 : 1; 1 Thessalonians 1 : 6) so if Jesus our Savior and role model can give Himself 100% to God and obey Him even to death, who are we not to?
Remember Abraham, and how he nearly sacrificed Isaac because God asked him to (Genesis 22)?
What about when God asked him to leave his father's country and go to a place he never knew before (Genesis 12)?
Unfortunately, this is not the same attitude we have these days. It's either we are totally disobedient or we are partially disobedient...but guess what the Bible says about that : "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination" (1 Samuel 15 : 22 - 23).
So according to this verse, obedience pleases God much more that any sacrifice but not only that but disobedience is the same as rebellion and rebellion to God is like the sin of divination.
Why do we only give God 30, 40 or 50 percent of our lives and expect Him to work in and through us. Why do we fail to obey all His commandments but only choose to observe the few that please us and our lifestyle.
This is not the will of God. Christianity, being a true follower of Christ, is not like going to the supermarket and picking out the different things that please us about the gospel and we walk out with a badge that says "CHRISTIAN". Christianity is being like Christ. And if Christ was totally obedient to God, so should we.
Being obedient is not only about following His commandments, or obeying His direct instructions to us, it is also about letting God into every part of our lives. As 1 Corinthians 6 : 20 says "you were bought at a price"...therefore, we do not in anyway own ourselves, not even a teeny weeny part. We are His. That means, whatever God wants to use us to do, we should yield to Him. This applies to our calling in the Kingdom of God and our ministries...do we let God work through us as John let Him work through Him? It also applies to our way life and relationships with others. Are we led by the world, impulse, emotions or by God.
For God to increase in our lives, we have to decrease, and for us to decrease, we have to be in total submission to God and to submit, there must be obedience.
Most of the time, we let God guide us in certain parts of our lives but the other parts, we like to control. The end result of such a life cannot be good. God knows what is best for us ("For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29 : 11) and most of the time, when we try to control our own lives, the end result is not so good ("There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death" )
Without our submission to God, He cannot really really work through us and in our lives...
King Saul, who was rejected by God after disobeying God, is an example of this (1 Samuel 15)...
God cannot and will not cohabit with pride, sin, doubt...and the rest in our lives!
So let's stop trying to make Him or hoping He will!
To sum it all up, we live our lives to the glory of God...our lives should show case Christ, our lives should therefore be all about HIM.
He chose us (Romans 8 : 33) and bought us with a price.
Child of God, let this be our prayer, let our desire be that as we decrease He might increase in us...let us exchange His wisdom for ours, His strength for ours and His desires for ours...
May God give us the grace to truly yield and submit to Him in every way of our life so that His will be done and that His glory might shine!
Amen.
[Check out this post for a little bit more on submission]
♥♥
This is our portion of scripture for this week.
In the passage, Jesus is talking to the crowd about John and His ministry.
John's words depict nothing but total obedience to the God over his life and ministry.
But even Jesus Himself demonstrated such obedience...But then again, if we study Jesus' ministry, we'll see He was obedient to God His Father, even to the cross.
"...Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22 : 42)
Now, we know Jesus is our role model (1 Corinthians 11 : 1; 1 Thessalonians 1 : 6) so if Jesus our Savior and role model can give Himself 100% to God and obey Him even to death, who are we not to?
Remember Abraham, and how he nearly sacrificed Isaac because God asked him to (Genesis 22)?
What about when God asked him to leave his father's country and go to a place he never knew before (Genesis 12)?
Unfortunately, this is not the same attitude we have these days. It's either we are totally disobedient or we are partially disobedient...but guess what the Bible says about that : "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination" (1 Samuel 15 : 22 - 23).
So according to this verse, obedience pleases God much more that any sacrifice but not only that but disobedience is the same as rebellion and rebellion to God is like the sin of divination.
Why do we only give God 30, 40 or 50 percent of our lives and expect Him to work in and through us. Why do we fail to obey all His commandments but only choose to observe the few that please us and our lifestyle.
This is not the will of God. Christianity, being a true follower of Christ, is not like going to the supermarket and picking out the different things that please us about the gospel and we walk out with a badge that says "CHRISTIAN". Christianity is being like Christ. And if Christ was totally obedient to God, so should we.
Being obedient is not only about following His commandments, or obeying His direct instructions to us, it is also about letting God into every part of our lives. As 1 Corinthians 6 : 20 says "you were bought at a price"...therefore, we do not in anyway own ourselves, not even a teeny weeny part. We are His. That means, whatever God wants to use us to do, we should yield to Him. This applies to our calling in the Kingdom of God and our ministries...do we let God work through us as John let Him work through Him? It also applies to our way life and relationships with others. Are we led by the world, impulse, emotions or by God.
For God to increase in our lives, we have to decrease, and for us to decrease, we have to be in total submission to God and to submit, there must be obedience.
Most of the time, we let God guide us in certain parts of our lives but the other parts, we like to control. The end result of such a life cannot be good. God knows what is best for us ("For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29 : 11) and most of the time, when we try to control our own lives, the end result is not so good ("There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death" )
Without our submission to God, He cannot really really work through us and in our lives...
King Saul, who was rejected by God after disobeying God, is an example of this (1 Samuel 15)...
God cannot and will not cohabit with pride, sin, doubt...and the rest in our lives!
So let's stop trying to make Him or hoping He will!
To sum it all up, we live our lives to the glory of God...our lives should show case Christ, our lives should therefore be all about HIM.
He chose us (Romans 8 : 33) and bought us with a price.
Child of God, let this be our prayer, let our desire be that as we decrease He might increase in us...let us exchange His wisdom for ours, His strength for ours and His desires for ours...
May God give us the grace to truly yield and submit to Him in every way of our life so that His will be done and that His glory might shine!
Amen.
[Check out this post for a little bit more on submission]
♥♥