Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out (Proverbs 10:9).
Heavenly Father, You are good and upright (Psalm 25:8). Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; love and faithfulness go before You (Psalm 89:14). Your promise assures us that God is with the generation of the righteous (Psalm 14:5 - NKJV)
But we live in an age where many attitudes are dangerously close to the arrogance You reproached through the prophet Malachi:
“You have spoken arrogantly against Me,” says the Lord.... “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out His requirements...? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it’” (Malachi 3:13-15).
Oh, Father, forgive us! Right our thinking! Your word clearly shows us that we are ultimately accountable to You. David declared in his prayer of confession, against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight (Psalm 51:4). His terrible misdeeds were in the human realm—against other humans—but he understood that he had sinned against You.
And similarly, Joseph, under constant harassment by Potiphar's wife to sleep with her, appealed to the ultimate standard of integrity, "How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).
Lord, teach us to walk in integrity. Impress on our hearts that our actions are accountable to You. Tear down the temptations that draw us into deceptive justifications—"getting back at 'The Man;'" "pay-back time" (for corporate and institutional greed or dishonesty); "two can play at the same game;""tief from tief mek God laugh"; "who would know?".... Lead us away from these temptations—deliver us from evil.
Help us to understand, Lord, that there is no getting away with it (Malachi 3:15). Remind us that the Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind. Let us not become those fools of whom You ask, "Do all these evildoers know nothing?" (Psalm 14: 1, 2, 4).
Father, search our hearts and show us areas of compromise. Remind us that there is no temporary happiness, no thrill, no solution, no desperation, no financial gain that is worth jeopardizing our soul: What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:28).
Teach us to walk securely in integrity, trusting You, and depending on You for every benefit.
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