Maintain Your Integrity

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Luke 16:10 (NIV)

Maintain your integrity. My favorite definition of integrity is: when the tongue in your mouth lines up with the tongue in your shoe. To be a person of integrity means that you are unmixed and unadulterated. With integrity, your walk and your talk are synonymous. There is no disparity and no duplicity. A person of integrity is not divided. For the person of integrity, the public life matches the private life.

Be trustworthy and honest. God rewards obedience. God values trustworthiness and honesty. If God can trust you with very little, then God can trust you with much. What are you doing with all that God has entrusted to your care? What kind of lifestyle are you embracing? Are you being trustworthy?

Whenever there is a gap in your integrity. Close the gap by making restitution. Make things right between you and God. Be vigilant in making things right with others. Resolve to make personal adjustments in your life to close the gap. Remove harmful habits and embrace healthy patterns to build a bridge of reconciliation to others.

Zacchaeus had a life-changing experience that resulted in his willingness to make restitution. He had financed his selfish lifestyle at the expense of others.

• “But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.'” Luke 19:8 (NIV)

Investigate your integrity. How’s your private life? How does your private life line up with your public life? Is there a gap? With the Lord’s help, address your duplicity and close the gap by God’s grace.

Pursuing God,

Stephen Trammell
Lead Pastor
Follow me on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stephentrammell