“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.” 2 Chronicles 32:7-8 NIV
With Love,
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
Integrity means doing what is right even when it hurts. It means being honest and dependable, all the time. It means people can always trust you to do the right thing. It’s the best reputation you could possibly have.
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” C.S. Lewis
The Bible teaches us to have integrity in everything we do.
“Because of my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever.” Psalm 41:12 NIV
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” Proverbs 11:3 NIV
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24 NIV
In May of 2005 American professional tennis player Andy Roddick was playing Fernando Verdasco, of Spain in the Masters tennis tournament in Rome, Italy. Roddick was the number one seed in the tournament and a heavy favorite to win the match.
Roddick dominated as expected and had triple match point when something extremely unusual happened. Roddick couldn’t return Verdasco’s hard second serve but the linesman called the serve out and awarded Roddick the point and the match.
With the crowd cheering Verdasco ran to the net to shake Roddick’s hand and congratulate him on his victory. However, Roddick knew something that the linesman, the umpire, the cheering crowd, and Verdasco himself didn’t know. The serve had not been out, but had hit on the line, making it in.
Roddick could have kept this information to himself and accepted the victory. Instead he informed the umpire that the ball had been in and offered to show him the mark on the clay where the ball had hit. The umpire reversed the call and awarded the point to Verdasco.
Having been given a second chance Verdasco made the most of it. He came back to win the game, the set, and the match giving him a highly improbable victory, especially considering not long before he had been standing at the net ready to concede.
Sportswriter Frank DeFord estimates Roddick’s honesty cost him “tens of thousands of dollars;” perhaps much more if he had gone on to win the tournament. Integrity was clearly more important to Roddick than either winning or money.
Do we do the right thing, even when it isn’t to our advantage?
It is imperative that we model integrity for our children. Mark Musser said, “Children who see parents model care, love, respect, generosity, self-control, integrity, and faith in Christ are much more likely to exhibit those traits in their own lives.”
It is amazing how much children copy their parents. This is nowhere more evident than in the school setting. I’m pretty sure a teacher must have thought up the saying: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”!
I suspect that if we really knew how true this was, we would be far more careful how we conducted our lives.
The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 NIV
Teach us Lord to have integrity in all that we do. Create in us the character of Christ. Renew our minds according to your Word.In Jesus’ Name, Amen
With Love,
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
“Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. 19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:18-19 NIV
With Love,
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14 NIV
With Love,
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
With Love,
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
When you are dealing with grief, suffering, or pain, Jesus can relate to you in a very personal way. He has experienced it himself. He understands your hurt. Let Him comfort you.
Who is this great Comforter? God calls Him, “my righteous servant“. (Isaiah 53:11)
“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.” Isaiah 53:3
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Did you know that the Lord can set you free in an instant, just like that? That’s what happened to me. After years of believing a lie, I am finally free. What was Satan’s strategy to defeat me?
It was getting me to think that the “one thing” I couldn’t have was what I needed to be happy.
You would think I could have figured that out, but I didn’t, not until the Lord revealed it to me Himself.
After a time of prayer, I don’t know why, but I decided to look up Charles Stanley on YouTube. I had heard of him, but had never listened to one of his sermons, and someone had mentioned him at my Bible Study the day before.
I picked a sermon called, “Satan’s Strategy to Defeat Us.” Totally unaware of what was about to happen, I listened to the sermon. Have you ever experienced this? In a sermon, the minister says one specific thing and you know God is speaking directly to you. You almost want to slyly glance around and see if everyone is looking at you!
That’s what happened to me that day. Dr. Stanley said that if you are hungry, angry, lonely or tired, that’s when you are vulnerable for a Satanic attack. My ears perked up. Then, Dr. Stanley explained that Satan’s strategy was to make you want the one thing you can’t have. I knew God had led me to this sermon. It was no accident.
Remember what happened to Adam and Eve? Satan got them to believe that they needed the one thing they couldn’t have. There was only one thing they couldn’t have: fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. I have a feeling that fruit looked a lot tastier than it actually was. (Is it possible that we magnify that “one thing” and make it bigger and better than it really is?)
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13)
Satan is still deceiving people with that same lie. He will make you think that to be happy, you need the one thing you can’t have. That is a lie. There is no “one thing” you need to be happy, except the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the same day, I just happened to be on Isaiah 54 in my daily reading plan.
“For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.” Isaiah 54:5 NIV
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10 NIV
The “one thing” you think you need to be happy could be any number of things: a baby, a spouse, a home, fill in the blank. But that is Satan’s strategy to defeat you. Don’t believe it. You are not condemned to a life of sadness, ever!
And, if you hear someone say, “The Lord is all I need”, those words might mean more than you ever imagined. There might be a story that brought her to that realization and now she can say with confidence,
“You may never know that Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have.”
Corrie ten boom
With Love,
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm139:13-16 NIV
With Love,
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
