Never compromise your integrity 

‘The integrity of the honest keeps them on track; the deviousness of crooks brings them to ruin.’ Proverbs 11:3 MSG 

In what he calls a compromise of integrity, psychiatrist Leo Randall analyses the relationship between former President Richard Nixon and some of his closest confidants. He records a conversation between Senator Howard Baker and presidential aide, Herbert Porter. Baker: ‘Did you ever have qualms about what you were doing?’ Porter: ‘Yes.’ Baker: ‘What did you do about it?’ Porter: ‘Nothing!’ Baker: ‘Why?’ Porter: ‘Group pressure. I was afraid of not being considered a team player.’ Joseph said ‘no’ to Potiphar’s wife, not because he couldn’t get away with it but because he couldn’t live with himself afterwards. Ted Engstrom writes, ‘The world needs people who cannot be bought; whose word is their bond; who put character above wealth; who possess opinions and a will; who are larger than their vocations; who don’t hesitate to take chances; who won’t lose their individuality in a crowd; who’ll be as honest in small things as they are in great things; who’ll make no compromise with wrong; whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires; who’ll not say they do it “because everybody else does it”; who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity; who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning and hard-headedness are the best qualities for winning success; who are not afraid to stand for the truth even when it’s unpopular; who say “no” with emphasis, even though the rest of the world says “yes”.’ Try weighing yourself on those scales!’ 

Prayer Point:

Father, help me be strong of character. Let my decisions be following Your character as laid out in Your Word. Show me clearly, Lord, when I make questionable decisions that hurt or hinder, and teach me the ways of Your kingdom, that I might know what the right things to do are, and stop taking the easy routes ahead in life, so my gifting might be used to its full. Amen. 

Acknowledgements: Swindoll, Charles R, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart (Thomas Nelson, 1998).