Integrity! WHat Is That?

“But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Behold with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house,     and he has put all that he owns in my charge.  There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife.  HOW THEN COULD I DO THIS GREAT EVIL AND SIN AGAINST GOD?” (Gen. 39:8-9).

Hey Gang:  How sad that it has become so common to hear, "Another warrior for Christ has fallen". Yesterday, as I traversed the day, the thought of  why things happen, or why we allow them that to the bank- what it will do to those who have trust in us?  I believe with all my heart the things that grieves Father God the most is when one of His faithful warriors succumbs to the  offerings of the evil one. 

 A cartoon in a local newspaper depicted two executives sitting in prison.  One turns to the other and says, “And all along I thought our level of corruption fell well within community standards.” Another said, “We can tell the success of our people by how many toys they have.”  

As I listened to the news tonight, which I might add is the most depressing part of my day, I got the feeling that I was sitting in one of the deck chairs   on the Titanic.  As one announcer said, ‘The biggest problem for the news media today is which crisis or break down in the law should they cover.’     

 The question then is, what is integrity? Everyone can probably give a definition of integrity and they'll probably all be different in some way or another.  The dictionary says that integrity is "the quality or state of being of sound moral principle; uprightness, honesty, and sincerity."

Okay, so integrity has to do with being moral, so now we need to see what moral means. Again, according to the dictionary moral means "capable of making the distinction between right and wrong conduct." That's man's definition, but what about God's?

Integrity is doing what God would say is the right thing, even if it costs you. It means obeying God's law, speaking only truth, and putting the other person ahead of yourself. It means displaying the character of God in your daily walk, and that means setting us apart from the world, and role modeling of the character of our God.

A man of integrity would rather die than deny, or turn away from, his integrity. Job said, "I will never admit you are in the right; till I die,   I will not deny my integrity" (Job 27:5). Why? Because even in the midst of torment, Job held on to his integrity.

Soooo, The point that I believe God was driving home into the depths of my heart today is, if someone has integrity, you can count on them in whatever situation. Why? Not because they'll do what you want, but they'll do what is right, no matter what the cost.