Your Daily Devotional for August 21, 2007

 

August 21,  2007

 

 

Keeping Integrity

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

"Thou shalt not steal."

 

Exodus 20:15

 

 

In 2005, a year filled with political wrangling, natural disasters, and pop culture curiosities, Americans turned to Merriam-Webster to help define it all. The words filibuster, refugee, and tsunami were each among the dictionary publisher's ten most frequently looked up words among some seven million users of its online site. But topping the list is a word that some say gives insight into the country's collective concern about its values: integrity.

 

"I think the American people have isolated a very important issue for our society to be dealing with," Merriam-Webster president John Morse said. "The entire list gives us an interesting window that opens up into what people are thinking about in their lives."

 

As we see in our verse today, the eighth commandment reminds us that we should not steal from God or from those around us. In today's world, God's command of not stealing has many times been redefined. What was once viewed as stealing by God's standards is many times now viewed as a minor infraction.

 

A Sunday school teacher was teaching her class about the difference between right and wrong. "All right children, let's take another example," she said. "If I were to get into a man's pocket and take his billfold with all his money, what would I be?" Little Johnny raised his hand, and, with a confident smile, he blurted out, "You'd be his wife!"

 

As God's children, we should strive to keep integrity in every area of our lives. One place we should keep integrity is where we work. Many times we can view stealing as taking a material possession that is not ours, but we can steal from our employers when we do not give our best at work. Ephesians 4:28 says, "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." We must work hard and give our best at work each day.

 

When we do not give our best at work, we are not earning the pay that is given us. God desires for us to give our best and represent Him. He commands us in Colossians 3:23, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." We are not working for an employer, but for the Lord. We must work hard and keep integrity in our workplace.

 

As a former member of the Air Force military police, and as a play-by-the-rules guy, Drew Pooters said he was stunned by what he found his manager doing in the Toys 'R Us store in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Inside a cramped office, he said, his manager was sitting at a computer and altering workers' time records, secretly deleting hours to cut their paychecks and fatten his store's bottom line. "I told him, 'That's not exactly legal,'" said Mr. Pooters, who ran the store's electronics department. "Then he out-and-out threatened me not to talk about what I saw."

 

In a day when few people care about keeping integrity, we must, as God's children, strive to honor our Lord by keeping integrity where we work. Do you have integrity at work? Do you work hard and honor the Lord in all you do? We must keep integrity in every area of our lives so that God will be glorified! Ask Christ to help you as you seek to keep integrity today.

 

Daily Bible Reading

Psalm 10-12 • Acts 19:1-20

 

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