God Will Honor Your Integrity (Psalm 37:18)
Maybe last month it was a relational disaster. This week it might be trouble at work. Next week could bring a health crisis. After awhile the unrelenting stream of tough times takes its toll.
“What’s the use?” we cry. “I try to do right, and for what? Life keeps beating me up. I can’t get ahead. I’m not sure it pays to try to live a godly life. I struggle as much or more than my neighbors who could care less about God!”
Troubles certainly have a way of wearing us down. And, if we’re not careful, they can erode even our bedrock convictions. The promise above is a good reminder of why we must be vigilant not to take ethical shortcuts.
Those who maintain their integrity, those who continue doing right—even when everything and everyone else is wrong—will one day receive the ultimate reward.
God’s Promise to Me
- I will take care of my innocent children.
- You will receive an eternal reward.
My Prayer to God
Life doesn’t seem fair at times, Lord. And integrity often seems like it doesn’t matter. But it does matter, God. You see everything. Nothing escapes your gaze. You promise to care for the pure and reward the faithful. Give me the spiritual tenacity to hang in there until the day when you exalt those who steadfastly trust in you.
Taken from Once a Day Bible Promises
Ideas Have Consequences
The aim of our instruction is love. (1 Timothy 1:5)
Victor Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Second World War. As a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry he became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which sold over eight million copies.
In it he unfolds the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy — namely, that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the camps that man can endure almost any “how” of life if he has a “why.” But the quote that stirred me recently was this:
I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. (“Victor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview,” in First Things, April 1995, p. 41.)
In other words, ideas have consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior — good and bad — does not come from nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil.
One of the ways that the Bible makes plain the truth that ideas have practical consequences is by saying things like, “Whatever was written beforehand was written . . . that you may have hope” (Romans 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope.
Again, Paul says, “The aim of our instruction is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). The imparting of ideas by “instruction” produces love.
Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.
Another way the Scriptures show us that ideas have consequences is by using the word “therefore” (1,039 times in the NASB). For example, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). “There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus“ (Romans 8:1). “Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34).
If we want to live in the power of these great practical “therefores,” we must be gripped by the ideas — the views of reality — that go before them and stand under them.
After wrestling with God all night, Jacob limps out to meet Esau. Instead of hatred and anger, Esau greets him with love and joy.
Glorious Reunion
Read
Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.
Then Esau looked at the women and children and asked, “Who are these people with you?”
“These are the children God has graciously given to me, your servant,” Jacob replied. Then the servant wives came forward with their children and bowed before him. Next came Leah with her children, and they bowed before him. Finally, Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed before him.
“And what were all the flocks and herds I met as I came?” Esau asked.
Jacob replied, “They are a gift, my lord, to ensure your friendship.”
“My brother, I have plenty,” Esau answered. “Keep what you have for yourself.”
But Jacob insisted, “No, if I have found favor with you, please accept this gift from me. And what a relief to see your friendly smile. It is like seeing the face of God! Please take this gift I have brought you, for God has been very gracious to me. I have more than enough.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau finally accepted the gift.
(Genesis 33:4-11)
Reflect
Why did Jacob send gifts ahead for Esau? In Bible times, gifts were given for several reasons. This may have been a bribe, an expression of affection, or the customary way of greeting someone before an important meeting. Such gifts were often related to a person’s occupation. This explains why Jacob sent sheep, goats, and cattle to Esau, who was a herdsman. In any case, Jacob was probably seeking Esau’s favor and good will.
Esau, who once had actually plotted Jacob’s death (Genesis 27:41), greeted his brother with a hug. Esau had forgiven Jacob. Time away from each other allowed the bitter wounds to heal. With the passing of time, each brother was able to see that their relationship was more important than their real estate.
Jacob must have been amazed to see Esau’s change of heart when the two brothers met again. We know how God changed Jacob, but he also must have been working on Esau’s heart. Esau was no longer bitter over losing his birthright and blessing; instead, he had forgiven his brother and was content with what he had.
Respond
Life can bring us some bad situations. We can feel cheated, as Esau did, but we don’t have to remain bitter. We can remove bitterness from our lives by honestly expressing our feelings to God, forgiving those who have wronged us, and being content with what we have. Who do you need to forgive? What glorious reunion could be in store?
Streams in the Desert – May 15
But now, the sun cannot be looked at – it is bright in the skies – after a wind passed and swept the clouds away.—Job 37:21
The world owes much of its beauty to cloudland. The unchanging blue of the Italian sky hardly compensates for the changefulness and glory of the clouds. Earth would become a wilderness apart from their ministry. There are clouds in human life, shadowing, refreshing, and sometimes draping it in blackness of night; but there is never a cloud without its bright light. “I do set my bow in the cloud!”
If we could see the clouds from the other side where they lie in billowy glory, bathed in the light they intercept, like heaped ranges of Alps, we should be amazed at their splendid magnificence.
We look at their under side; but who shall describe the bright light that bathes their summits and searches their valleys and is reflected from every pinnacle of their expanse? Is not every drop drinking in health-giving qualities, which it will carry to the earth?
O child of God! If you could see your sorrows and troubles from the other side; if instead of looking up at them from earth, you would look down on them from the heavenly places where you sit with Christ; if you knew how they are reflecting in prismatic beauty before the gaze of Heaven, the bright light of Christ’s face, you would be content that they should cast their deep shadows over the mountain slopes of existence. Only remember that clouds are always moving and passing before God’s cleansing wind.
—Selected
“I cannot know why suddenly the storm
Should rage so fiercely round me in its wrath;
But this I know—God watches all my path,
And I can trust.
“I may not draw aside the mystic veil
That hides the unknown future from my sight,
Nor know if for me waits the dark or light;
But I can trust.
“I have no power to look across the tide,
To see while here the land beyond the river;
But this I , know—I shall be Gods forever;
So I can trust.”