In the previous years we have embarked on the idea of looking at ourselves and exploring the question of “what am I achieving?”  As we move forward into a new year, expanding from the Family Matters Series, it is essential that we explore, not what we are achieving, but rather who we are becoming.

Proverbs 10:9 – “He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known.”

Examining that scripture, we must first define integrity: a firm adherence to ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty; the quality or state of being complete or undivided. Integrity in being undivided is simply the idea that your words are not divided by your actions. Becoming a person of integrity secures your walk. By walk, it is meant to define the means by which we behave, or by the manner of our living.  Walking securely in integrity would mean the freedom from anxiety, as we behave and live in a way that reflects sound moral ethics.

What does integrity do for us?

 

Integrity Secures You

Integrity impacts all areas of your life.   However, walking in integrity will secure you in your mission.  Those who follow a crooked path will be exposed, but leading with integrity gives you freedom from the fear that the manner of your living is corrupt.

“The expectation of integrity in people has seemed to diminish.” – Pastor Billy R. Johnson.

 Integrity Guides You

Proverbs 11:3 – “The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.”

Integrity begins to instruct you and guide you. Integrity causes you to make decisions that are in line with what is right, or what is the standard.

When leading with integrity, you may ask the question of yourself, “Am I violating my integrity by doing this?”  If there is something eating at you on the inside, it is integrity that is speaking up.  Integrity may even guide you to go back and make things of old right.

“Integrity will weigh in your heart to not just do right, but to do it because it is right.” – Pastor Billy R. Johnson. 

Integrity Blesses the Generations After You

By leading with integrity, you are not just living for yourself. You are also living for your children and your children’s children, as they will reap the blessings of your integrity.

Proverbs 20:7 – “The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.”

Blessed is characterized by happiness, and to be highly favored. King David provides us with an example of what it looks like to have generations be blessed after you. King David walked in integrity and those after him were blessed. David’s walk in integrity caused the blessings of the next generation. (1 Kings 15:4, 2 Kings 19:34, Isaiah 37:35)

In closing, if we look at Joseph, using the principles of his life, his integrity secured him, guided him, and allowed the generations after him to be blessed. There was something bigger on the inside of Joseph that would not allow him to succumb to that which would destroy him. Joseph resisted another man’s wife, even when she chased him. And although his brother’s had thrown him into a pit, when the tables had turned and Joseph ruled over much and stood in a position to take revenge on his brothers, he did not as he was guided to do right by his walk of integrity. Even after being thrown into prison, he remained secure and unafraid that he would be exposed of wrong-doing, as he knew his walk of integrity. Joseph went from the pit, to the prison, to the palace, with the generations after him being blessed.