Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father inspire us to ask Him to reveal us to ourselves. How have we fallen short of your Will Father? Call out to us to call out to you to show us anything or any way in us that is offensive to you. And when you reveal it in us, may we eagerly repent and receive your eager forgiveness. Heavenly Father, in the name of your Son Jesus, by the guidance, growing power of the Holy Spirit, fill us with your delight at our dedication to embracing your loving discipline. Help us to hear and to heed your Will in all things, even if only you are watching. Amen.
Your Morning Song: "What Have We Become?" by DC Talk
Your Morning Scripture: Proverbs 10:9
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.
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The easy reading of this proverb would be to think it is only talking about money. But in the life of God's child, in the life of a believer, the call to be a person of integrity runs all the way through a person.
Who I am is what I do when no one else is watching. The truth of me is found worthwhile or wanting, depending on how much my thought-life would change if others could read my mind.
What sort of choices am I making when no one else is watching? How disturbed or hurt would others be if they could listen to my inner thoughts?
God is calling us to a way of life that is good, moral, upright through and through, no matter who is watching. And "way of life" is a phrase that matters. In the verse you see "walk" and "takes crooked paths." It is not enough to hope that our good deeds outweigh our bad. They never will. It is not enough to treat our walk like a collection of checked boxes. We will never be able to check enough of them.
Our lives are to be wholly and fully lived with integrity.
How have we responded to God's call to us to live this way? Do we weigh our choices according to God's Will? Or do our choices change depending on our audience or lack thereof? Am I the same man in all situations? Or are the unseen nooks and crannies of me full of cut corners and little lies?
As we grow up in our walk with our Lord, we should be more deeply grieved by our sin and more eager to embrace every opportunity to be people of integrity. Trustworthy people. God-pleasing people. Consistent people. People quick to admit fault and failing, and quick to forgive the same in others.
If we are very brave, we will ask our Heavenly Father today to show us by the Spirit how we have fallen short of His call to whole-life integrity. And when we ask, He will show us. How will we respond?
