- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
INCREASE AND DECREASE.
By J.H.Jowett.
“He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3 v30).
Becoming less is the secret of growth. This sort of decrease is really a making room for Christ. Our self-importance shrinks as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. It is when we are full of self, self-opinionated, self-centred, self-seeking, that Christ is crowded out. That was the deadliness of so many of the Pharisees in the time of our Lord. They were full of self. You could not go near a Pharisee without running into his self-importance. You were always touching his pride. It bulged out in everything, even in his prayers, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men. . . . I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get”. There was no room for the Saviour. The life was too full of swelling self-conceit. That was the deadly element in the life of the Pharisee. They would not decrease, they would not become poor in spirit.
So in a sense we may say that increase in the Christian life consists in making room for Christ. Even in the Christian life we often burden ourselves with many things. We have too many rules. Rules for this, rules for that and rules for the other. What a muddle we will make of life. Rules to observe in prayer, rules for the cultivation of charity, and so on. I am over-burdened, so I return to Him who said, “Come to Me, . . . For My yoke is easy and My burden is light”.
Making room for Christ is the one great secret in the Christian life. The royal way is just to decrease in everything, and to let His increase be our strength and glory. Suppose we concentrate on that, and put all other rules on one side. Let us take each circumstance as it comes, whether it be sad or happy, large or small. Let us meet each circumstance with this attitude and this spirit, that I must make room for Christ. He must become greater and I must become less. I must be filled with His presence and all that happens must be fragrant with His grace.
That was the way of Paul. Here is his secret, “For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1 v21). That is making room for Christ in everything. He states the secret again, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2 v20). Self decreases almost to the point of extinction. “Not I”. The apostle becomes complete in Christ.
From: ‘The Friend on the Road’.