Dying to Self (John 3:30)
He must increase, but I must decrease.
– John 3:30
These words from John the Baptist, when I was a young follower of Jesus, God put on my heart as what I want to be the theme of my life. And I share that not at all, saying or assuming that my life exemplifies John 3:30. But I want it to, this picture of John the Baptist when a lot of people are putting attention on him, he says, “I’m here for one reason. I want to decrease, and I want Jesus to increase. Don’t think about me”, John says, “I want you to think about him. I don’t want you to look to me. Look to him”.
John 3:30 teaches the essence of following Jesus.
And in this sense, these words represent the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It means to die to yourself in every way, to not live for yourself in any way, and instead to live for Jesus and his glory in everything. And I think that one of the reasons this verse stuck out to me and has stuck with me in the way it has for decades now is because it’s such a battle in my heart, my flesh on a daily basis, to totally die to myself and to live wholly to his glory.
And so I just want to pray this verse over my life in a fresh way today and over your life today, that our heart’s cry would be John 30 in everything we do, that Jesus would increase and that we would decrease. So God, we pray for that. We pray that you would make John 3:30 the theme of our lives and the desire of our hearts.
We pray that you would help us to die to ourselves today in every way to die to what we want or we think is best or we would like to do. And to die to pride and the desire for approval from others, or acceptance from others, or even thoughts about what others might think about us. God, we pray that the driving motivation in our lives today would be what others think about you. He would help us to live, to point people to you today.
John 3:30 pictures a life centered on God’s glory.
Help us to shine in a Matthew 5 kind of way to live today so that others would give glory to you. Jesus, you alone are worthy of all glory. Even the thought that I would live or we would live to increase ourselves… Who are we? God, we have nothing good apart from you. You’re the Source of everything good in our lives.
So we pray, help us to steward all your grace in our lives today to cause your glory to increase and our names to decrease. God, bring us low and exalt yourself high. We pray for that to be the theme, the desire of our hearts and the fruit of our lives today and tomorrow, and the next, knowing that you alone are worthy of all glory and all praise and all honor, it all belongs to you. And God, we pray for the increase of Jesus, not just in our lives, through our interactions with others today. We pray for the increase of Jesus in the cities where we live.
Prayer for the Sakaldwipi Brahmin People
We pray for the hallowing of your Name, oh God, and the spread of Jesus’ glory in the communities, and the cities, and the nation where we live. And God, in all the nations…
We pray specifically today for the Sakaldwipi Brahmin people of India. We pray for this people group of over half a million Hindi-speaking men, women, and children. There are no known followers of Jesus among them. God, please cause the Name of Jesus to be exalted, we pray. Cause the Name of Jesus to spread. Cause the good news of Jesus to spread as Savior, Lord, and King among the Sakaldwipi Brahmin people of India, and in all the nations of the world.
We pray for your increase, Lord Jesus. And we pray for our decrease for the glory of your Name. Amen.
