Proverbs 2:7 “he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity”
Years ago I found myself working in a business for a man who was very entrepreneurial and as time went by he trusted me more and more. Within around 3 years I was overseeing all of his various interests for him and we had a healthy working relationship. He had opened a city centre business a year or so before I had joined the Company and I came to understand that this business was not going well, and was causing serious problems for the viability of all the other interests and businesses he had. I took on the day to day responsibilities for the rest of the business while he tried to resolve the issues around a property lease that possibly could cause him to lose everything he had, including his house, car, savings, etc.
On one day he asked me to attend a meeting with the bankers, who were looking to call in their loans and put the businesses into receivership. In the meeting the bankers were talking amongst themselves as they waited for another lawyer to join, they had all been at a strip club the night before and were all openly talking and laughing about their experiences. To me, it seemed ugly and distasteful. Then in the meeting, they explained to my friend how he could make a decision that would mean he would not need to honour his debts, causing losses to others, and so the total loss to him would be a lot less. He would still lose his business.
After the meeting he told me he would never do that, he would rather lose everything and honour every single debt and pay it back in full than take the route they had offered. He did pay every debt, and I stood with him as he did that, the bank did put the business on the market, however, it did not sell in the next three months and by then we had raised enough cash to buy the business back From the bank, and extract ourselves from the lease in the city. His businesses went on to be super-successful and he is still in business today, with the same integrity he had all those years ago.
KNOWLEDGE
Who do you trust to keep things safe for you, the bank, under the floorboards, your best friend, or maybe your family? What are you keeping safe – possessions, secrets, dreams?
Who do you hope is keeping an inheritance safe for you – your parents, grandparents, lifelong friends…..?
We are so grateful to those people in our lives whom we can trust and who have our best interests at heart. They can be hard to find at times.
This scripture tells us that not only is God keeping all we need safe for us each day, but he is also protecting us so that we can be sure to walk into it at the right moment. We have been seeking exactly what he is storing., we have been searching for exactly what he has been saving, and we have been pursuing the very provision he has for us.
All we need is safe in God’s hands, nothing and no one can gain access to take away what he has for us. No matter where we go God has victory, insight, and good judgement for us, which leads to position, stability and provision. We shall not want……..
UNDERSTANDING
Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
“Integrity” appears as the English word 35 times in the ESV, from Gen 20:5 to Titus 2:7. The original word (pronounced “tom”) appears 25 times and is translated into the English words, integrity, innocence, random, full, upright, blameless and measure, in the ESV. Within the context of these scriptures, the theme is one of blamelessness. The actions of individuals in the scriptures are attributed with innocence, even when things don’t go well.
Integrity acts with no malice, no intended harm in its words or actions, it’s a state of heart and mind that resides with us as we reside with Christ – it’s his mind, just as Philippians 4:8 describes in fact.
WISDOM: what lack in your life today could be met by building your integrity through your relationship with God?
STRENGTH THOUGHT: Belief – you intrinsically know what is true and unchanging, and will stand strong no matter what.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version [he puts all his value in great moral judgement with no twists or crookedness towards any. He lives to protect with all his strength those entrusted to him so that they can freely decide to remain blameless in all situations]
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Please help me today to place value on honour and integrity in my own life as a priority.
Amen. To know what is true and unchanging. And to stand strong in Christ, no matter what.
The ‘no matter what’ especially in the rigors of everyday life, is where it calls for integrity.
Integrity acts with no malice, no intended harm in it’s words or actions, it’s a state of heart and mind that resides with us as we reside with Christ – it’s his mind, just as Philippians 4:8 describes in fact.
I have experienced that more of Him and less of me changes and renews my mindset and worldview thinking whatever is true, is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable excellent…. seeing the best in people and who they are called to be and resting in that. There is freedom and liberty.
I’m sure much of our lack of integrity comes from how close our relationship with God lies. If we could sit down at a table and talk face to face with God we would have absolutely no problem with staying the path. However, he requires us to walk by faith and the closer our relationship with God the stronger our resolve will be day to day. He graciously gives us all things, so why do we find ourselves in a dilemma and make wrong choices?
Thanks so much for this topic of integrity and honor. As God children, we have to reflect our self to become more like Him, Jesus Lord day by day. He is the only pure and top example of a man with honor and integritry.
Our daily life including our way of doing business will also show on how ourself to become more like Him or not.
Keep leaning on His words, His way of life and His teaching is the way to go keep our honor and integrity as His children.
Amen
Thank you Allan. I love the life experience you talked about today. It goes to show, even if it was hard at that time to do the right thing, losing your business etc…. how God honoured his integrity and lifted him up at the right time.
Integrity in life can be compromised by putting trust in others. As a born again Christian and Jesus speaking into my heart and walking alongside me I came to a profound realization. That until 12 years ago God lifted the vail from my eyes. Before I was compromising my integrity and values to please someone I had put my trust in. Now the one I put my trus in is God. I’ve been set free basically to follow what I always knew in my heart was the right and righteous thing to do. I feel integrity is pleasing and right in God’s eyes. Thank you Pastor Allan for prayers and encouragement each day.
That’s a great illustration of a man’s integrity & a wonderful example for you Pastor Allan.
We grow our character through all our life experiences & the choices we make – I can’t say I’ve made the right ones all the time but through my mistakes hopefully I have learnt how important listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit & knowing what God says is the better choice to living a life of righteousness & integrity in both the small & big challenges which confront me. The world often presents an easy unethical fix to our problems & our flesh is tempted to cave in when we are vulnerable but choosing God’s ways & trusting Him always allows us to live free of guilt & regret as we choose to value honour & integrity above all else in walking out our Christian journey.
What a wonderful word.
With integrity comes his promise to protect us, lead us on the path of righteousness . And all good things come to those who live according to his word .
We have lived through some difficult working environments and it is so evident that because of integrity and our decisions to do things right , to honour agreements and work diligently as unto the lord , He has blessed us, protected us, and shown us the miracle working God He is in our lives.
Amen!!!!
God is a promise keeper and I’m so very grateful for that.
Integrity is to live in honesty and have strong moral principles.
Through Christ Jesus, we are all forgiven,and become a new creation ,when we make a choice to give our hearts to him .
When we are faced with challenges we have a choice to wither under pressure or stand firm on our faith and beliefs.
I have learnt to put my trust in Jesus, than in man
And to ask God to help me to live a life to honour him with every thing do ,
Walking uprightly in this world can sometimes be frowned upon, laughed at or even mocked.
To me this verse confirms that if we follow God’s word and seek his wisdom doing our best to live uprightly He will always protect us by being our ‘shield’.
Shields were typically used in battles to protect oneself against the enemy. To me this world represents our battles but if we stand firm in our integrity the Lord will be our shield so ultimately the victory will be ours from the enemy !!!
“God keeping all we need safe for us each day…. All we need is safe in God’s hands” I love this truth . When you have knowledge that ultimately it’s the Lord who provides you’re at peace that you won’t miss out and therefore don’t compete with any other man. Thank you Pastor Allan. Another beautiful devotional
……Integrity through building relationship with God?
Integrity is in essence the truthfulness , honesty, and uprightness with consistency and accuracy in our dealings in life.
Truely this is honourable in the sight of God.
Thank you for sharing your experience .
God is faithful and He rewards those who act uprightly-honestly!
I love this Word “Integrity “
Thank you.
Your best one yet, Allan. Loved reading this. Challenging and provoked me to think.
Especially loved the story of your friend’s business.
“Innocence even when things don’t go well”.. love that description of integrity. It’s a great challenge to live by.
It’s good to know that not only is God keeping all we need safe for each day but He is protecting us so that we can be safe to walk into it at the right moment! Wow!
And that all we need is safe in God’s hand, no one can gain access to take away what is rightfully ours.
He is a shield to those who walk in Integrity. My relationship with God is a daily walk of knowing He sees, watches and cares for all that happens to me and all that I do.
Love that he stores up sound wisdom for the upright. This gives me access to great wisdom for situations. Integrity is a standard to live by without compromise. It can be costly sometimes, having been affected watching former work colleagues cheat on internal training exercises and modules and getting an advantage over me.
In His time, He makes all thing beautiful and work for my good.
“not only is God keeping all we need safe for us each day, he is protecting us so that we can be sure to walk into it at the right moment” – this is an encouraging thought. I also like how you defined integrity being the mind of Christ – which we will have also as we do life with Him.
Thanks Ps Allan 🙂
I Think his talking about his a shield for anyone who is walking with him (God) with the Holy Spirit as the guide and to protect which he has sent to teach us and give us the instinct sometime we can make sense of.
Amen Allan. Just the meaning “Integrity acts with no malice, no intended harm in it’s words or actions, it’s a state of heart and mind that resides with us as we reside with Christ” something that I am learning and challenged to do on a daily basis.
Thanks for today’s message Allan. To live with integrity as meaning without malice or intended harm in words or actions, is harder than it might seem.
This week I received what was intended as constructively critical feedback on a piece of work I’d prepared. I responded courteously that I would revise what I had done, but inwardly I was bristling and imagining ways I could subtly undermine the one who’d provided the feedback even though I also realised they were making a valid point.
Reading today’s message, it struck me that a challenge for living with integrity could be my own ego. Amazing how that can still feel threatened despite decades of life experience. Ultimately, overcoming that insecurity comes down to learning to love and accept yourself just for who you are as God does because of Christ’s sacrifice.
This is a remarkable reflection Justin – thank you for being so vulnerable and open!!
This teaching reminded me of an experience years ago when I was in investment banking. I did not put my clients in a dodgy stock that my bank was promoting and my boss told me in front of my other colleagues “… don’t forget who is your pay master.”
Thankfully I knew my paymaster is my Lord and not the bank. In the end, I kept my job while my boss was asked to leave. God will never short changed us. He is faithful.
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.
I find this so interesting to explore. Why does someone who walks in integrity need a shield? Surely it’s because honest, trustworthy and honourable actions leave us exposed to the harm that others can cause.
Thank God for His law, and His love.