“They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan-the one you testified about-look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” (John 3:26)
“He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30)
A magnifying glass is used to enlarge the fine-tuned characteristics of an object, similarly, I want to magnify the characteristics of my God. John the Baptist had his own disciples, just like Jesus. These disciples were studying under John, but John was pointing them towards Jesus as the Messiah. One day, John was baptizing new believers at the same time that Jesus was baptizing new believers.
An argument broke out with John’s disciples where they began to compare the amount of people John was baptizing to the amount Jesus was baptizing. They were comparing John’s ministry to Jesus’s. John responded with the truth. John’s ministry was to point ALL towards Christ, the bridegroom. His ministry had nothing to do with personal fulfillment, numbers, or gaining followers. His ministry was actually about one thing which was, “He must be greater; I must become less” It was about glorifying God.
You see, many times God calls us to ministry, jobs, or service and our hearts forget what matters: as long as God is glorified, nothing else matters. The focus should truly be on becoming less, so that he becomes more. Through this, we begin to experience GREAT joy as we, “take up our cross daily.”
![Has a post on social media ever made you immediately frustrated? Maybe you even started to think ill of the author of the post. You feel your chest tighten and wonder, how could they have said that? You are so mad you want to click the unfollow button.
[save for reference for when you’re offended]
An offense can happen when someone sins against us, or even if someone just rubs us the wrong way! Often, it comes out of a “right versus wrong” mentality. We get offended and harbor bitterness. Wounds and resentment create rifts and divisions and we find ourselves clutching our anger tightly in our fists to prove we are right.
It’s okay to feel upset when you are offended or sad, but we can’t let bitterness take root. Instead, we must be quick to forgive. As believers, holding a grudge inhibits our ability to reconcile. And when we avoid reconciliation, we miss out on what God wants to do in and through us.
Typically for me, offense stems from pride or self-righteousness. I have received some pretty offensive comments over time, and my feelings do get hurt. But as Christians, we need to be able to “overlook an offense” just like it says in Proverbs.
This passage says it is “one’s glory to overlook an offense.” #chasingsacred (read the rest of the article on @hosannarevival)](https://www.chasingsacred.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
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