The prayer is: "May integrity and honesty be our virtue and our protection".
Integrity means honesty; a quality of being unimpaired, or sound; being undivided. (as in standing firm on your beliefs in God's Kingdom). It means respect. From the virtue of integrity comes trust.
The scripture is Psalm 25:verse 21. I like to go back a few verses to verse 12 - 18, and 20 through 21:
"Are there those who respect the Lord? He will point them in the best way.
They will enjoy a good life, and their children will inherit the land.
The Lord tells his secrets to those who respect Him.
My eyes are always looking to the Lord for help.
He will keep me from any traps.
Turn to me and have mercy on me, because I am lonely and hurting.
My troubles have grown larger; free me from my problems.
Look at my suffering and troubles, and take away all my sins.
Protect me and save me. I trust you, so do not let me be disgraced.
My hope is in you, so may integrity and honesty protect me (guard me)."
This is a teaching in itself - directly from God and David. It pays to have integrity and honesty! It's everything to be trusted and respected! We know we can believe every word God speaks to us in his word - the Bible. We can trust Him. He demands respect, and gives us respect.
Lord, help us to always keep our eyes on you. Help us to always be honest and to stand firm in our faith and beliefs. Continue to teach us, Lord. Continue to lead us on the path we should go. Thank you, Jesus!
There is a simple song we used to sing at prayer meetings, which really has a lot meaning for us today:
How great is our God. How great is His name.
How great is our God. Forever the same.
He rolled back the waters of the mighty red sea,
And He said I'll never leave you -
Put your trust in Me.
4 comments:
Well now, I am sure David most assuredly came to understand the importance of honesty and integrity after he had an affair with Bathsheiba and had her husband murdered. He suffered tremendously because of his sins and this brought him back into focus of how important it is to maintain your integrity and honesty. (There are those of us who have to get hit on the head with a 2X4 in order for God to get our attention!)
My point is, God wants us to possess certain quality characteristics so we can live a stress-free, happy life. He didn't lay down the rules so we would make ourselves sick with worry over living within those rules or to prevent us from having fun, he laid down those rules for our protection and peace of mind. How much sorrow and stress and worry would David have prevented had he resisted the temptation to have an affair with Bathsheiba? How tormented was he after having her husband murdered? Had he maintained his honesty and integrity, he would not have generated so many troubles for himself and those around him.
We all fall from grace on occasion, though not as seriously as David did necessarily, but we are all sinners. Thankfully, God stands ready to forgive and forget and keep on loving us. That is HIS honesty and integrity at work!! He said He'd do it, and He does it.
In the Bible, David is called "a man after God's own heart." Isn't that incredible, an adulterer who got a married woman pregnant, killed her husband, and went on to raise one of the wisest rulers in Jewish history (the product of his aldulterous love affair)! Goes to show that God is willing to forgive all sin because HE desires a relationship with us. Amazing. But there are consequences for disobedience; David, and his people, did suffer for his sin. Because while God is quick to forgive, He is just and sin cannot go unpunished.
Integrity
Webster Dictionary defination:
1. Adherence to a code of values; INCORRUPTIBILITY.
2. Soundness 3. Completeness
That is a tall order. Sometimes it is easier to "go with the flow." Here is my story:
I work with a group of 8 customer service reps. One of them was brought on board as a temp. After her 90 days our boss asked each of the team members what we thought, then he put her on full time ANYWAY. She is hard to work with, she is absent alot and unwilling to take direction from us "old timers" causing her to have many errors and she throws her co-workers under the bus when caught in her errors by the management team. Very easy for all to not like her. BUT...the CSR group would gossip about her and make cruel remarks behind her back, frustration levels were extremely high. And all of that negative energy caused a stifling unpleasant work place. Instead of examining ourselves and our own motivations, everyone fed into that negativity. And I am no better than the rest, because while I chose not to participate, I did NOTHING to stop it. Until...I just could not take it anymore and Amanda had started up the gossip. I left the work area and upon my return, before I even made it to my desk, Amanda said, "Isn't that right Michelle?" I asked her what was right. (Understand that nobody was working, they were sitting around in a circle-a conspiracy circle). She said two words, "How Donna..." And I could not hear another word. I started with, "This is so sophomoric..." And progressed from there. I got up on a soap box about creating and maintaining an assault of character and hate towards another who isn't all that different from any one of us. We all come to work to support ourselves and our families, we all want to "fit in", find acceptance, etc etc etc. I told all of them that I was just sick of it, the negativity, the character assasination, the pain it caused Donna, because, really now, don't you think she knows we all do this? Come on. I told them is was like having a beutiful porcelin coated sink with a dripping faucet. DRIP, DRIP, DRIP wearing away the beautiful finish, exposing the vulnerable metal beneath, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP until that metal was rusty and beginning to fail becasue the rust ate holes right into it. How could we, as a group, do that to another human being? Yeah, I frustrates me as Donna's back up buddy, that she is gone from work so much, I won't lie, but sitting around here slamming her for things I know nothing about, may be causing her to stay away. How hard it must be to come to work everyday when you "sense" the cruelty of your co-workers. "I am sick with this. Tired of this. I for one need it to stop. We are good people. You do not need to be her friend, but you do need to stop this mean girl behavior!" I stood up and was counted and my face was burning red with the attention that was focused on me. But the group was silent, they broke up. I went home (I leave an hour earlier than the rest). The next day, it was "chilly" in the office. But a change was taking place. The day after that, Barbara pulled me aside and THANKED me! Can you believe that? She was the worst of all of them too, spewing hateful things. She has changed the most. And it is a struggle for her. Everyone keeps quiet now about Donna. And Donna, wow, while she can still be annoying, she is becoming more open to the direction and help that we try to give her. I told her one day "Thank you for coming to work today." That was after she called in to say her son wasn't well and she would make it in if she could...and she did. I told her how it affects me when she is gone so much, we just talked honetly about it. She has improved some what in that area. I know she is more comfortable at work, I knew she could sense the tension over the gossip, even though she was not there to hear it, she knew it. Okay rambling again. Sometimes sticking to your values is difficult and scarey, but you never know how things will turn out unless you try. Honesty is hard too. You can hurt people with it. That is where I usually end up, hurting someone. But it is not something I do intentionally. You know what I mean?
Oh, Michelle, what a story! Look at the difference your honesty and integrity have made at work! I'm sure you made more friends than enemies that day. And the one you pleased the most, was the one who counted the most! (God)
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