Integrity - The Ultimate Victory

Integrity is not a word you hear in our society as much as you did when I was growing up. When I watch the national or local news I see that integrity is very much lacking in our world.

Billy Graham said, "Integrity is the glue that holds our way of life together. We must constantly strive to keep our integrity intact. When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost."

Here is a short checklist to rate yourself in the area of integrity:

• Your words and your deeds match up. Another way of looking at integrity is, I am who I am, no matter where I am or who I am with.
• You are complete and whole. 
• You have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. Your life is an open book.
• You do not have hypocrisy in your life. You are reliable, financially accountable, and privately clean and innocent of impure motives. 

Six scriptural benefits of being a person of integrity.

1. It pleases God - I Chronicles 29:17 - "I know my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity."

2. Protects - Psalm 25:21 - "May integrity and uprightness protect me because my hope is in you."

3. Upholds - Psalm 41:12 - "In my integrity, you uphold me and set me in your presence forever."
 
4. Walk securely - Proverbs 10:9 "The man of integrity walks securely."

5. Guides - Proverbs 11:3 "The integrity of the upright guides them."

7. Guards - Proverbs 13:6 "Righteousness guards the man of integrity."

How to be a person of integrity:

• Pray that God will show you the blind spots and areas of inconsistency in your life.
• Have a few trustworthy friends with whom you meet on a regular basis. Accountability is essential to maintain a pure life before others and a wholesome walk with God.
• Have people of integrity as role models in your life.