Shrinking Violet

A few Sunday's ago, I called to see my sister on my way home from church, it was a quick visit, and as we had our goodbye hug I called her "My shrinking violet". She has a medical problem with her back and she is literally, physically shrinking. Both my mother and grandmother had the same problem, and my sister has inherited it.

We had, had a challenging message from our pastor that morning about shrinking. He had been expounding on John 1, John the Baptist had been asked who he was, his reply, "A voice" and our pastor reminded us that, that is what we should be, a voice to those in the wilderness of sin.  I wrote a blog on that too, Be a Voice.

But John, speaking of Jesus and himself said, 

John 3:38 He must increase, I must decrease. 

And we were challenged to consider our own lives. Do we live for self, or is Jesus the centre of our lives? Do we live to please God, or do we live to please ourselves? Who is number one, Jesus or self? If Jesus isn't number one, then self is. When we put Jesus first everything else falls into place, when we put self first things start to fall apart. 

My sister can do nothing about her body shrinking, but all who confess to be Christian can and should make a conscious decision to shrink self and allow Jesus to live His life through them by His Holy Spirit. 

Don't be ashamed to be a shrinking violet.