Integrity

  Recently, a man visited a local fast food restaurant and asked for a half dozen chicken nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter; "We only have six, nine, or twelve.” “So I can't order a half-dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right!" So he ordered six nuggets.

   Though we smile, isn’t there something sad about this experience? It serves as an example of the shallowness, an unwillingness to think, that pervades our day. It has affected more than our ordering from the menu at a fast food restaurant; it has affected our ability to comprehend the spiritual truths so critical to life.

   Psalms 26:1-2 reveal that individuals living in the days of old were not plagued with our mental lethargy. It is convicting to notice how David’s meditations did not begin like mine. The initial focus of the Psalm was not on the headlines of the day, not on the events that kept his life “on the edge;” but on the condition of his own heart!

Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. (Psalm 26:1-2).

  The King was asking the Lord to examine his integrity and uprightness. He realized that the things that mattered most were his standing before God in uprightness, and his standing for God before his fellow man.

   Not until the end of the Psalm does David mention the lurking dangers that threatened the kingdom and his very life. Interestingly, even then it was not to take advantage of God’s ever sensitive ear, or to complain about his lot in life, but to acknowledge his dependency and express his confidence in his God.

   How about you my friend? In this day of spiritual shallowness, would you consider these truths that matter the most? Do you know our God personally? Are you walking in integrity before Him? Let’s talk about it. Give me a call.