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Weekly Wisdom Winnows
by Lisa Mendenhall
Do you see yourself as a person of integrity? As a person who always speaks the truth and is totally honest with yourself and with others? Lets see what the dictionary and the Word of God has to say about integrity and then lets compare ourselves to what these say to see if we really are the way we think we are.
Encarta World English Thesaurus explains integrity with these synonyms -honesty, truth, truthfulness, honor, veracity, reliability, uprightness. So to not have integrity would be untruthful, dishonest, not reliable, basically it would be a deceitful person. One who deceives another or who is in fact deceived themselves. The Word of God says this;
Psalm 41:12 [The Amplified] And as for me, You have upheld me in my integrity and set me in Your presence forever.
Psalm 78:72 [New International Version]And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
Proverbs 11:3 [The Message Bible] The integrity of the honest keeps them on track; the deviousness of crooks brings them to ruin.
So the Word of God is saying that God can keep me up held and keep me set in His presence IF I have integrity. He said that David shepherded the flock with integrity of heart and by that integrity had what He needed to lead them. It also says that integrity will keep us on track and going in the right direction while dishonesty and deceitfulness will cause ruin to come to our lives and actually cause us to get off track and going in the wrong direction. Now I know that the Bible does not lie, so if being deceitful will cause me to fall, cause ruin, get me off track and going the wrong way, then IT WILL.
I believe there are a lot of people who think they have integrity that are actually deceiving themselves. I also think that there are people (especially in the Christian circles) that does not see integrity and honesty as a main-all-important issue. I want to show you according to the Word what NOT having integrity will do for you. There are no gray areas with God, only black and white. He does not say, "okay, you can be half honest and it will not hurt you." NO! That is totally against the Word. Many people wonder where their blessings are and where is God when they need Him and God is saying to those people, "Where is your integrity, your honesty"? Where is the integrity God is needing in us so He can work with us?
1 John 1:5 - This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If you are walking and dabbling with dark areas, like half-truth, slanting the truth ,where you will look better or omitting part of truth, all these things are deception. God cannot bless deception. He is not a God that He should lie. He cannot and does not lie to you or for you and He does not condone it. We as Christians need to take the blinders off of our eyes and start seeing truth for what it is-TRUTH. No lies, no deceptions, no believing it doesn't bother God, no thinking I will do it and God will forgive it. That is deception-thinking at its worst!
The truth is integrity, and with out it you will be operating in deceitfulness and you will fall. Whether you like it or not, the Word of God does not change. Then when failure comes you wonder why!
It is time to hear God's Word the way we are suppose too- without itching ears. Hear the truth, so you can be a doer of the truth and be the light that shines brightly in a dark place. Do not be a shadow Christian. One who lurks in the shadows and only brings truth out when it is convenient or beneficial to them. That's not integrity and I promise you no matter what the world says, lack of integrity will bring you down in the long run, it is a spiritual principal. GOD DOES NOT LIE!
So check up on your integrity level. Do you need to kick it up a notch or two? Be Blessed Lisa
Rate it:
'To separate the chaff from (grain) by means of a current of air. To rid of undesirable parts. To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate: winnowing out the errors in logic. ...separate grain from chaff...separate the good from the bad...examine closely in order to separate the good from the bad; sift...' (www.dictionary.com) 'This study gave me direction and focus for my teaching. God had placed a longing in my heart to teach the body of Christ how to separate from carnal thinking and rid themselves of old ways that hinder their Spiritual growth. I desire to see them live victoriously, by the 'higher ways' of God's wisdom.'
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