RELATIONAL LEADERSHIP

ADMITTING TO MY ROTTENNESS

One of my favorite verses has been John 3:30 which says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

I have had to recite this verse often, sometimes every day.

How come? There are days and moments I really want to increase – to be ‘the man’, to be the answer to every solution, to be the hero of the story.

Wanting to look good has never been a problem for me.  To protect or even improve what people think is so natural for me.

That only shows the rottenness of my own heart. I guess, that’s why Jesus had to save me.  And He still is saving me from this rotten attitude.

Read what Pastor Tullian says about this from his book “Jesus + Nothing = Everything.”

Returning to the gospel is a return to reality. Reminded of the gospel, we’re reminded that sin enslaves by making us big; the gospel frees by making us small. Our self-esteem culture would have us believe that the bigger we become, the freer we’ll be. But the gospel turns that on its head—the smaller we become, the freer we will be. We begin to decrease; Christ begins to increase. The world says the more independent you become, the freer and stronger you’ll be; the gospel says the more dependent on God you become, the freer and stronger you’ll be.

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Paolo Punzalan's avatar

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Paolo Punzalan

Husband, father, pastor and most importantly, Christ follower.

2 responses to “ADMITTING TO MY ROTTENNESS”

  1. alvin Avatar
    alvin

    AMen! Amen! I so can relate to your post. Godbless brother.

    Reply
  2. william Avatar
    william

    “the gospel says the more dependent on God you become, the freer and stronger you’ll be”.

    Dependency made so much impact on me. It meant a lot of things- from a technical point of view, a system will not fully work if not all dependencies are in place. Same is true with us, if all areas of our lives, which are suppose to be dependent on Him is not properly in place, we will not achieve our full potential- which is LIBERATING in a lot of ways. My old religion/thinking will say otherwise, but in God’s grace now, God increasing in my life and mine decreasing IS FOR MY OWN GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT BENEFIT.

    Reply

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