None of Me, All of Thee

"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30

This must be the rule of my life, my banner-cry forever.

Because...

This is how I am justified and forgiven.

Not by the hopeless endeavor to win and fight my way into the favor of God and His blessed Celestial City, but by looking to Jesus only and leaning on Him absolutely.

'Nothing in my hands I bring, 
Simply to Thy cross, I cling.'

This is also how I find assurance.

To be honest, I am tossed with tempest, overcast with doubt, and haunted with fear, while I examine my frames and feelings. But when I fix my gaze on Him,

so all-sufficient,

so perfect,

the morning dawns,

and my shadows flee away.

The winter is past, and the flowers appear. For my own comfort, I would see Him as a glorious Sun filling my firmament.

This is also how I grow holy.

While it's true that I am called to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling, it must not be as if everything depended on me. It must rather be by a perpetual faith in Him, and a perpetual prayer to Him, who works in me to will and to do of His good pleasure. The battle is not mine but His. I am so thankful for this. He sows the seed, and then in His time, He ripens the harvest. He lays the foundation and puts the copestone in its fitted place.

And finally, it is how I shall be glorified when I die.

Oh, day of days, when Self will have vanished deep in the better country, where Christ will be my All in All. Blessed increasing eternity! Where I shall follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. I shall find my haven, peace, and victory in keeping close to Him. There, in the full height and depth, length and breadth of of eternity, Jesus will ever be my familiar Friend. And yet He will be new every morning. There, I will forever discover in Him a subject of matchless study, perpetual wonder, endless worship, and illimitable and unfathomable love.

Yes, He must increase, but I must decrease.