When the Wall Gives Away

I have not posted any of my devotions for awhile, but felt this one really needed to be shared. This is from "The Word For Today" Devotional by Bob Gass Ministries.

WHEN THE WALL GIVES AWAY

"Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness."
Jeremiah 22:13

You can only hide your lack of integrity for so long. Eventually you'll experience failure, and whatever influence youve temporarily gained will be swept away. Hurricane Katrina taught us that. When the storm came the levee walls in New Orleans broke and the city went under. You see, integrity is like a wall erected one brick at a time. That's why its crucial to take care of the little things. A lot of us don't understand that. We think we can do whatever we want when it comes to small things; we believe so long as we don't have any major lapses we're doing well. But that's not the way it works. Webster's New International Unabridged Dictionary describes integrity as adherence to moral and ethical principles, soundness of character, honesty. Ethical principles are not flexible. A little white lie is still a lie.

Theft is still theft, whether it's one dollar or one million. The truth is, if you can't be trusted at all points you probably can't be trusted at any point. Each time you break a moral principle you create a crack in the wall of your character, and when times get tough it becomes harder to act with integrity not easier. You see, character isn't created in a crisis; it just comes to light. Everything you've done in the past, including the things you've neglected to do, come to a head when you're under pressure. One Christian leader writes, "Integrity commits itself to character over personal gain, people over things, service over power, discipline over impulse, commitment over convenience, and the long view over the immediate."