{"id":4276,"date":"2011-03-24T05:11:59","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T13:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=4276"},"modified":"2011-03-24T11:44:05","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T19:44:05","slug":"decreasing-for-his-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=4276","title":{"rendered":"Decreasing for His Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
March 24, 2011<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He must increase, but I must decrease \u2014John 3:30<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If you become a necessity to someone else\u2019s life, you are out of God\u2019s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a \u201cfriend of the bridegroom\u201d (John 3:29<\/a>). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don\u2019t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone\u2019s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God\u2019s will and saying, \u201cThis person should not have to experience this difficulty.\u201d Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, \u201cYou are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. \u201c. . . the friend of the bridegroom . . . rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom\u2019s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease\u201d (John 3:29-30<\/a>). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness-at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.<\/p>\n

Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom\u2019s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see\u00a0Matthew 10:34<\/a>).<\/p>\n

______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

March 24, 2011<\/p>\n

Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n

It occurs to me that much of our (and my) religious energy is spent trying to make things \u2026\u201dright\u201d. Trying to \u2026do the right thing, make things right for those around me and create a better place in this world for myself.<\/p>\n

And God says\u2026\u201dIt is not wrong to try to do the right thing\u2026but I came to give you life and life more abundantly. You have the life more abundantly as you give your life, your trying and your ideas of what is right and \u201cbetter\u201d to Me. You can stop your striving and trying and focus your energy on Me. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 24, 2011 \u00a0 He must increase, but I must decrease \u2014John 3:30 \u00a0 If you become a necessity to someone else\u2019s life, you are out of God\u2019s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a \u201cfriend of the bridegroom\u201d (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4276"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4282,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276\/revisions\/4282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}