Living Upright (Proverbs 11:3)
When a family member has integrity, it is a gift to the rest of the home. Remove that integrity, and the feelings toward that family member will be changed.
Families that thrive are full of upright individuals who seek each other’s guidance and prosper together. What do you do to expose any areas in your family that lack integrity? In a healthy family, a lack of integrity will surface more quickly because the lack is not the norm. In an unhealthy family, it won’t be exposed as easily because it will be hidden among other issues. You need to look closely at each family member’s life and address areas where integrity is lacking. This effort may be uncomfortable, but it’s necessary to maintain integrity in the home.
If your child shows signs of lacking integrity, you need to confront this issue quickly and remind them of Proverbs 11:3. Help them to instill more integrity in their life.
Parenting Principle
Always live with integrity and you will always experience the guidance of God.
Points to Ponder
- Is your family high in integrity? Are you?
- Where does your family need help with integrity? How can you help?
- Are you building barriers of protection around your family in this area? How?
Taken from Once a Day Nurturing Great Kids
At the Bottom of It All
In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:5)
The experience of Charles Spurgeon is not beyond the ability of any ordinary Christian.
Spurgeon (1834–1892) was a contemporary of George Mueller. He served the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for over thirty years as the most famous pastor of his day.
His preaching was so powerful that people were converted to Christ every week. His sermons are still in print today and he is held up by many as a model soul–winner.
He recalls an experience when he was sixteen that shaped his life and ministry for the rest of his days.
When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.
I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths [the doctrine of election] in my own soul — when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man — that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, that clue to the truth of God.
One week–night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it.
The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment — I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so?
Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”
After strategizing and sending gifts to his brother, Jacob is left alone. During the night he wrestles with God and is forever changed.
In His Grip
Read
This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
“What is your name?” the man asked.
He replied, “Jacob.”
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
“Please tell me your name,” Jacob said.
“Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.
(Genesis 32:24-29)
Reflect
Jacob was alone—no family, friends, workers, or even animals—alone with his thoughts and fears. Imagine what he must have felt as he lay on the ground, looking at the stars. But often the best time to meet God is when we are alone and at the end of our resources.
Jacob had spent most of his life wrestling with people, but now he was wrestling with God. Jacob continued this wrestling match all night just to be blessed. He was persistent. God encourages persistence in all areas of our lives, including the spiritual. Strong character develops as you struggle through tough conditions. Where in your spiritual life do you need more persistence?
Eventually God overcame Jacob by weakening him. Then God blessed Jacob by giving him a new name: Israel—from the Hebrew word that means “to struggle.” Various translations of Jacob’s new name include “one who struggles with God,” “let God rule,” and “a God-mastered man.” In any case, Israel is a changed man.
God gave many people in the Bible new names (Abraham, Sarah, Peter). Their new names symbolized how God had changed their lives. Here we see how Jacob’s character had changed. Jacob, the ambitious deceiver, became Israel, the one who struggles with God and overcomes.
Respond
If God changed your name to reflect the kind of person he’s making you into, what would that name be? “Loyal one”? “Courageous”? “Focused on God”? Ask him to help you change in that direction.
Streams in the Desert – May 14
In the selfsame day, as God had said unto him (Gen. 17:23).
Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Every time God calls us to any duty, He is offering to make a covenant with us; doing the duty is our part, and He will do His part in special blessing.
The only way we can obey is to obey “in the selfsame day,” as Abraham did. To be sure, we often postpone a duty and then later on do it as fully as we can. It is better to do this than not to do it at all. But it is then, at the best, only a crippled, disfigured, half-way sort of duty-doing; and a postponed duty never can bring the full blessing that God intended, and that it would have brought if done at the earliest possible moment.
It is a pity to rob ourselves, along with robbing God and others, by procrastination. “In the selfsame day” is the Genesis way of saying, “Do it now.”
–Messages for the Morning Watch
Luther says that “a true believer will crucify the question, ‘Why?’ He will obey without questioning.” I will not be one of those who, except they see signs and wonders, will in no wise believe. I will obey without questioning.
“Ours not to make reply,
Ours not to reason why,
Ours but to do and die.”
Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience, the bloom on the fruit.
–Christina Rossetti