“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
– John 3:30
These are John the Baptist’s words talking about Jesus. John 3:30 in particular has had a formative effect, influence on my life. Years ago, somebody challenged me when I was young in my faith to have a life verse, and this is the verse I chose. I chose it not because it’s always true of my heart. I chose it because I want it to be true of my heart, but here’s the challenge.
We should pray that God will help us to want people to think less about us and only about Him. Let’s long to live for the increase of Christ and the decrease of ourselves.
John the Baptist talking about Jesus. John the Baptist getting a lot of attention. He says, “No, no, no. I must decrease. Jesus must increase.” I look at my heart and I think, I’m just being blunt level honest with you here, I think I truly have a desire to see Jesus increase, to see Jesus glorified. But the problem is I don’t usually have a desire to see myself decrease. I want to see Jesus glorified, and I kind of like the idea of myself increasing, certainly not above him, but increasing in the process.
This Verse Wants Us To Decrease So God Can Increase
I like it when others think well of me, and I don’t want to decrease. In my flesh, and I know it’s from my flesh, like, I want to increase. And so John 3:30 just beckons me. Whenever I think about it, which is a lot, John 3:30 beckons me to live, to pray that God will give me a heart that really does want to decrease so that Jesus might increase, that people would think less about me, and only about him as a result of my life.
God, I pray for this in a fresh way in my heart, today. I pray that you’ll give me a heart that really desires to decrease. God, help me to grow in this. God, deliver me from all pride, from all desire for gain for me. God, please, help me to decrease.
John 3:30 Prays For God To Increase In Our Lives
Jesus, I pray that you would increase in my life. I pray that you would shine so brightly that anything in me just pales in comparison, just falls by the wayside. God, I pray for this in my life. I pray for this in others’ lives. God, I pray that you would help us to live for the increase of your son, for the glory of Jesus, and that you would humble me and the rest of us that we might just totally fall in the shadows of his greatness and his glory.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
