Walking With Integrity

Walking with Integrity

“9 People with integrity walk safely,
but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall.”
- Proverbs 10:9

Integrity has been simply defined to me as “what you do when no one is looking.” In Merriam’s Dictionary, you will see it defined as adhering to a strict code of moral or artistic values, as to be incorruptible. You can be integrous to different ideas, beliefs, and morals. But the integrity that is portrayed here is an integrity that follows God.

How am I walking a path of integrity with what I know and believe in God? Or at the least how should it look, so that I know when I am not and am susceptible to “slip and fall?” It looks like spending time with God everyday through doing devotions, focusing and using my time wisely for the things that God has called me to grow (whether new skills acquired, old ones tuned, school, growing right relationships, or anything else God puts on my heart). When I listen to God, I am under his protection and from here I know that I can move safely and effectively. But when I start to do my own things, not listening to what I know I should do, breaking focus to try to bring my own sense of fulfillment into my life, and go on to sinning, eventually it is inevitable that I will find myself in trouble and flat on my face.

To walk with integrity is to walk with God, and with that said, the opposite is true as well: to walk without God is to walk a selfish path – one that leads to danger and harm. I must be a person who walks with God, to use the time I have wisely and do and focus on what God asked and asks me to do. There is no way around this truth, because we are either for God or against Him. I choose integrity; I choose to walk with my God.

Father God, please help me to be focused, to walk with integrity in this world that has so many distractions and worries. I know that I lack in many areas and I need your help to make it through this life not by the skin of my teeth, but in victory and success. I want to be close to you, I want to be a man of God that has the maturity to be a good father and a good husband. Please help me to move to the next stepping stones, so that I may be these things, able to provide more than just for myself but for a family, and perhaps even for a congregation. You already know this, but I care ... May your will be done, and may my heart follow it. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Let God Penetrate Deep Into Your Heart

"My child, pay attention to what I say.
Listen carefully to my words.
Don’t lose sight of them.
Let them penetrate deep into your heart,
for they bring life to those who find them,
and healing to their whole body."

- Proverbs 4:21-22

I know that this is King Solomon who wrote these proverbs, but it feels as if God is speaking to me. Telling me to focus on what he has taught me, keeping to it and remembering them to the point that it has taken root in my heart. Because God's words when followed brings about a life that is truly alive - vibrant and dynamic, moving with the power and force of God with inspiring awe and edifying truth. Nothing, no feeling, or adrenaline rush, can compare to a life that lives for Him who created the heavens and the earth. It certainly does not happen in a night, but a life built on such truth and understanding of God's word will bring a life that overflows with God's grace and love not only in their own heart, but to those around such a person too.

I'm not perfect, or anywhere near such a state of being. But I once was close to God...I would pray with friends and see results and hear results that could only have been God. I have not been that close for several years now, and there are multiple reasons for that, but in the end they're all just excuses - part of it anger, and the other is mistrust. But I do remember and want that closeness and relationship back, but it will come with the cost of changes in my life, comforts that I must let go of, and the choice to stand in loving firmness, not bending to others wills.

Father God, I ask that my heart would hold to your words of wisdom and life. More than just the life with breathing, eating, and sleeping (as we all do). But a life with meaning and purpose far beyond that of our families and friends, but a life that has the power to be part of transforming lives and seeing even the miraculous. Thank you for your wisdom, for correcting my mistakes and helping me to see what I need to change. I just need the strength to hold to the changes and allow your spirit to guide me as it did before. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.