“He must increase.” (John 3:30)
I was dropping off a few boxes of Links Players magazines at the post office the other day before heading to get a bite of lunch. It’s not the usual place one encounters a key theological reminder. But there in the back window of a minivan in the parking lot was a simple decal. Its three words were the words of John the Baptist you see here: “He must increase.”
In that original context, John added a corollary: “I must decrease.” In six simple words, the wild prophet of the first century had reduced his life’s mission to something we all need to hear: It’s time for me to get out of the way.
Follow any man or woman from appointment to appointment and you’ll get a good idea of their priorities.We are not reductive people on the whole. We’ve been taught to pray for expanded territories, to build the kingdom, to extend our reach. John’s mission was quite the opposite. He planned to get smaller. And in so doing, he was looking for Jesus, the Messiah, to increase.
Can God really get bigger? Of course not. His nature extends infinitely. His reign covers the universe.
But in our eyes, in our lives, God can get bigger. God should get bigger.
We should know this as naturally as we know anything else. Look: Once we were not golfers, and now we are golfers. Once golf took no time from our lives; now we drive to the club, maybe have a pre-round meal, hit warm-up balls, roll some putts to get a feel for the speed, head to the first tee, knock it around for four hours, tally the scores, pack up our clubs, maybe catch a quick drink with our partners, and then drive home. Those who say golf takes too much time might have a point! But we love this game, and we’ll go farther than this—watching golf on TV, reading golf magazines, shopping at the golf store.
“Where your treasure is,” Jesus said, “there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21, ESV). It’s probably not out of theological line to suggest that time, too, is a strong indication of the location of one’s heart. Follow any man or woman from appointment to appointment and you’ll get a good idea of their priorities.
So now we come to this. Is God getting bigger in your life, or is he getting smaller? His glory is a fixed commodity. But whether we are glorifying him is another question altogether.
“My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary sang. Can we sing it with her?
—
Jeff Hopper
June 12, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.