Episode 258: I’m Talkin. . .Increase

I’m talking episode 258 for March 26th, 2023.

This is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week we’re talking increase.

Increase is a fairly simple word, fairly well known, probably something we use semi-regularly, I guess, in conversation.

It is something that if you look around you, the world seems to chase.

Increase is the norm.

It looks like that is what people are after, whether it be increase in status or increase in position or increase in money, maybe your salary, those kind of things.

And that’s what the world chases.

It kind of reminds me of, I don’t remember the character’s name in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but the little girl who says, I want more and I want it now.

That’s what I think of when I think of increase from a worldview perspective.

Therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

If we are looking at creature comforts, if we are looking at increases in salary, increases in position, none of that is scripturally prohibited.

There’s nothing in the Bible that says we need to live poor and dejected.

There’s nothing that says we can’t be well off and comfortable.

The question is, what is our goal?

If our goal is to increase, to be the top because that’s where we want to be, then we can run into problems.

If our goal is to bring God glory, then we keep things in proper perspective.

We might pass up things that others would chase because it’s not going to bring God glory.

And so with that perspective, we go after things in our own lives very differently.

Recently I’ve come in contact with a song by Matthew West called My Story, Your Glory.

And the concept of the song is, God can use every part of our lives to bring glory to Him.

And the challenge this year is to live to bring God glory, is to be that person that draws other people to Jesus Christ.

Additional words from that song say, so he says, My story, my glory, my pain, your purpose, my mess, your message.

The idea being that God uses every part of our lives as a witness to others.

And it brought to mind also the language from John the Baptist, where his disciples are saying, hey, this Jesus character is stealing disciples away from you.

What are we going to do about it?

And John the Baptist’s awesome response says, I must decrease, he must increase.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.