Integrity and Congruity must travel together …

“Though they patrol their walls night and day against invaders,

their real problem is internal—wickedness and dishonesty

are entrenched in the heart of the city.” Psalm 55:10 The Living Bible

 How often do our defenses protect us from one direction while danger comes from another … or from within.

• Do we lock the front door on evil and then let it into the den through the television set?
• Do we faithfully take our multi-vitamin every morning and proceed to eat to our destruction throughout the day?
• Do we subscribe to Health and Fitness as well as Prevention magazines yet read only Bon Appetit and Paula Deen’s Best Recipes and Desserts For Everyone?
• Do we righteously read a Scripture or devotional thought early in the day and then live clueless and pagan in the rest of the day’s actions and decisions?

Jesus was speaking to religious people when He said, “you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy–full of greed and self-indulgence!” Matthew 23:25 New Living Translation His solution? “First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.” Matthew 23:26 New Living Translation

 We’re called to congruity in our living. We Christians are sometimes labeled as hypocrites and we are when we do a head fake to the right and veer to the left … when our actions don’t mirror our talk.

When I talk a moral standard I don’t live by I become a pretender, my life a sham. When I talk love and compassion and leave brokenness unattended my testimony is suspect. When I boast ethical standards but live secretly beneath them I am giving any skeptic the right to appraise my behavior.

Ultimately my integrity or lack thereof isn’t going to let any unbeliever off the hook. For Christianity isn’t built on our perfection but on the perfection of the One who gave his life to help us successfully live ours. And Jesus was no hypocrite!

But this week I have a choice to make. Actually, I will have many choices to make. I will embrace the choices that help my walk to parallel my talk. I want my convictions and beliefs to show corresponding activity in my life.

I don’t want to spend time patrolling the walls of my life while inside my ‘city’ anything goes. I don’t want to be a pretender. When you look at my life I desire my testimony to proclaim ‘what you see, you get!’

Consider ordering your copy of Fresh Heart For a New Day from Amazon.com 365 daily devotions like the one you’ve just read. Here is a recent Amazon review: “I look forward to my devotional, quiet time each morning. Fresh Heart for a New Day is like a conversation with a wise friend; each day the words touch my heart, I ponder and think and pray, preparing myself for what God has planned for my day. Paul Walterman is a wonderful writer and the words on each page are inspirational.” Rick