I have decided to try blogging on a variety of topics somewhat regularly. The posts may be in order to elaborate on a sermon, point to some helpful resources, or for me to just aimlessly ramble.
On Sunday, we looked at John 3.22-36. John the Baptist faced the great temptation to be jealous of the growing ministry of Jesus and the lessening of his own ministry. In the face of that temptation, John made this profound statement, "He must increase, but I must decrease." I wonder how often our thoughts are closer to this, "Jesus, help ME to increase."
It's one thing to talk of growing in our allegiance to Christ and cultivating a heart of humility and it's another thing to do that. I would like to recommend a couple of resources to you in this area. One book that I have found to be quite helpful is Humility by C.J. Mahaney.
In the book, Mahaney quotes John Stott as saying, "At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend." As Mahaney says we all need to set ourselves on the course of mortifying pride and cultivating humility by the power and grace of God.
If you would like to listen to two sermons by Mahaney on this topic you can download them here.
May God grow us by his grace and empower by His Spirit that we, too, might be able to say, "He must increase but I must decrease."
