March 20, 2014 Integrity (1)
Thursday March 20, 2014
People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall. (Proverbs 10:9 NLT)
How many of us have tried to lose some weight. We try to watch what we eat and try to follow the doctor’s instructions, if that is who suggested we lose weight. The doctor may have advised of certain foods to eat and in amounts that would enable weight loss. If we faithfully follow the doctor’s advice or the directions of a diet plan then we can weigh ourselves and be certain that our weight will come down over a period of time. When we begin to eat the correct diet food things usually go well and we can watch the numbers go down. After a while though, we may give in to having just a little more bread, or a few more nuts, or a bigger helping of potatoes, than we know our diet allows. We tell ourselves no one will see us eat the extra food but, when we get on the scales, the numbers show the result of what we have eaten. The scale does not lie!
What about our spiritual life? What are you and I thinking and doing when we are alone? Are we people of integrity? What if our thoughts or actions from yesterday or today were put on a screen for everyone to see? How would we feel? Would we still be known as the nice people others think we are? God wants us to have a safe and satisfying life and therefore God desires that we be people of integrity. Being honourable people that others can trust allows us to live in freedom from fear of being “found out”. The Bible tells us to let our yes be yes and our no be no. Jesus said, “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37 NIV)
Sometimes in our spiritual journey we are tempted to follow a path that will not lead us in the way we want to go. Just like eating extra food will never help us lose weight. Deceiving ourselves that our secret sin does not matter will not achieve the goal of living the abundant life that Jesus promised.
“Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:24 NIV)
We cannot hide anything from the Lord so why not just confess our secret sin and ask Him for help to overcome what is causing our lack of integrity. He is willing to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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