STANDING DOWN TO JESUS -- Devotional for June 24, from "Good Seeds"

John said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. And so my joy is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:27-30)

Whenever a man speaks as no man has spoken before him, whenever his actions belie the run-of-the mill common man, placing him instead on a pedestal far above the guy next door, the temptation arises to hoist him to our shoulders and give him a hero’s welcome, or (shudder!) bow down to him with accolades worthy only of a god. This had been the experience of John the Baptist. Oh, he was not your handsome movie actor type, or a greater-than-life sports icon, and yet he was one who for a time attracted crowds with both his appearance and his message, such as Israel had not experienced since the days of Elijah. But he would have none of it, none of the attention, and none of the credit, for his entire reason for being was the glory to God, and to give it, in the words of Paul, “whether it be by life, or by death” (Philippians 1:20). As it turned out, Paul glorified God over a long and fruitful life, while John the Baptist did it for only an extremely abbreviated career. The lesson he learned in that brief span is a lesson most of God’s would-be heroes don’t seem to learn in a lifetime, which is simply this: whatever talents, skills, opportunities, advantages, or gifts we may have are just that – gifts, from the gracious hand of God. And if with these gifts He lifts us up in the eyes of men, it is so that we, with the following we may have achieved, would “give it up for” Christ, giving any glory we may have desired for ourselves, all to Him, saving none for self. Truly our purpose can be no higher or greater than to be moons reflecting the light of the sun (the SON) onto a darkened world. If we try to shine our own light it will be as obnoxious as tooting our own horn – immediately in the eyes and ears of God, and eventually in the eyes and ears of those we seek to impress – and as ineffectual, as well. Whenever we sense men treating us and speaking of us as stand-ins for Christ – or our wanting them to – we must, like John, redirect their thinking and loyalties away from us to the Savior. We don’t tell them we are dirt, or that we are nothing, for truly we have a specific function in the family of God: it is a marriage, where Jesus is the Groom and the church His bride, leaving us to be no more or less than His best friends, standing up in witness, standing down to His glory, and standing by to exemplify pure joy at the sound of His voice – content not to have ours heard at all, especially if it may distract folks from Him.