Help Me Decrease, O Lord

Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean wilderness and there they were baptizing. John and his disciples went to a different location and were baptizing as well. We know Andrew left John to follow Jesus, but clearly not everyone did. John still had disciples with him. If you look at the beginning of chapter four of John’s gospel, you see that the group with Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John was. The word was getting out that Jesus’ crowd was growing, and John’s…was not. John’s disciples went straight to their leader with their concerns. And with their jealousy. They said, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” There were still people coming to John the Baptist, many of them, but their exaggeration, “All are going to him” seems to have been birthed out of their jealousy. Their desire for a big ministry. Nothing good can come from our jealousy of others’ success or position. When the women of Israel sang, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his tens of thousands,” Saul burned with jealousy and anger. It cost him his peace, his sanity, and eventually his kingdom.   
 
It is a rare young pastor who does not struggle with jealousy over those who have bigger churches. I say that from experience, as I remember to my shame the grandiose dreams I had for Antioch in the beginning. Most of what I wanted to see was based on my selfish desire to make a name for myself and to build a church that would be the envy of others. There were times during conflicts with members that I got defensive, or when people left that I got upset, because I had made it about me. To my shame. It took years, but God has built Antioch in spite of my sin, while at the same time disciplining me because He loves me. AW Tozer wrote, “It is doubtful God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” I am not saying He has blessed me greatly, but I can say that He has disciplined me greatly. And don’t worry. He is still working on me. It is a lifelong process. 
 
But think of this scene that John included in his gospel account. The disciples of John the Baptist had chosen to follow him. When they heard there was a bigger ministry down the road, they were jealous. This is a very common tactic of our enemy, Satan. He convinces us, and our flesh easily agrees, that we should criticize others who seem to be more successful than we are, even if they are faithfully doing God’s work. We see crowds of people going to other churches and we get jealous and we start to look for faults in their ministry or doctrine or leadership, anything we can find. There may be some! But it is not our responsibility to correct another church. That role is consigned to the leaders and the flock, and if they don’t do it faithfully, God will. Jealousy and a partisan spirit can also happen within a church. It happened in Corinth. Paul wrote to the church, “…it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Wait a minute! There were factions in the church and one of them was a group that followed Christ?! There was a mess in Corinth because the people were divided on who their favorite leader was. And Paul asked them, “Is Christ divided?” Spoiler: He is not.  
I love John the Baptist’s response to his overwrought disciples. He smiled as he spit out the shell of the locust he was having for breakfast and said, “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” 
What a statement of purpose for a life well lived! What a declaration of the divine and perfect will of God. “He must increase.” And “I must decrease.” Let’s learn to pray and practice this: “Jesus, my desire is that you increase in my life and as my first love. And Lord, my desire is that I decrease as the object of my own affection.”  
 “Keith Green sang it this way: “Make my life a prayer to you, I want to do what you want me to. No empty words and no white lies, No token prayers, no compromise… I want to die and let you give Your life to me so I might live. And share the hope you gave to me, the love that set me free.”