The Process of Decreasing

The Process of Decreasing

The Process of DecreasingYou’re ready to start letting Jesus take over your life, but you don’t know how to go about it. You’ve come to the right place. I will share some know-how of the process of decreasing right here, right now.

If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms. (Luke 17:33, MSG,*)

Surrendering your life to Jesus is a series of little deaths. Only the person who is dead to his/her own will can really follow God’s leading. The world things this is crazy. But this is the way of God nonetheless. When we are empty enough, God’s grace and power can fit it.

Christian living is all about the process of decreasing. We need to decrease to make room for God in our lives and let Jesus increase in us. The more Spirit-filled we are, the more joy we have in our life. It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But how to go about it? What does it mean in real life, in the midst of every day chaos?

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. (Romans 12:1, MSG,*)

It’s nothing else than giving God permission to do what he pleases with us. It’s prayerfully giving all that we are, all that we have to Jesus. Not just the good and beautiful but also the bad and ugly. Not just the joys of our days but also the sorrows of our nights. Everything and every day.

With the words of Elisabeth Elliot “One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.” The process of decreasing takes a lifetime. Because life is full of changes and challenges that come up along the way. We can’t truly surrender things and feelings that are not here yet.

Remember to let whatever you’ve surrendered to Jesus to stay at the foot of the cross. Don’t pick it up again like you’d know better than God what to do. Sometimes we really do need to re-surrender things over and over again until we can finally let go of control. Just keep surrendering until you’re truly free. God can do so much more with your life that you could ever do.

The process of decreasing means dying to our own whims and wants. But by God’s grace it also opens up an exciting future in God. When you surrender your everything to God, you can rest assured that God will not only take care of you but accomplish amazing things through you. May the process of decreasing continue according to God’s plan!

 

Dear God,
Thank you for desiring to pour our grace upon grace on me.
Help me to die to our whims and wants.
Help me to decrease so that there would be more room for Jesus.
I surrender my everything to you.
Make me your instrument.
Use me as you please.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you feel about surrendering your everything to God?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you let the process of decreasing continue in your life!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy of creationswap.com, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke.  Linking up today with Dance with Jesus, Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday, and Faith Barista.

4 thoughts on “The Process of Decreasing

  1. may we ALL Live a much surrendered Life & His Spirit lead us in2 ALL Truth 4 the magnification of our dearly Adored LORD Jesus<333 blessings Always, sweet sis & hugs!

  2. Mari-Ann, I love the way you describe surrender as a process whereby God’s joy can increase in us. So often we view it rather negatively as a laying down of all we hold dear instead of a growing into deeper relationship with Jesus. The wise words from Elisabeth Elliot really hit home to me too because it takes our whole lifetime to continually offer up our lives to God, little by little. Thank you! Blessed to be your neighbour over at Beloved Brews. 🙂

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