Wisdom In Integrity

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1559. Today's Devo is called Wisdom in Integrity. Hey there, we're the Alesssies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome back to the My Morning Devotional Podcast. This is your host for the week, Gabby, and we are jumping into another value of Proverbs that we're taking out of the book of Proverbs, and we're going to look at the word or the value, integrity. What is integrity? Let's break this down a little bit because Proverbs 20, verse 7 says this. Or you could say, blessed are his children after him. This is so close to home, this value and this virtue, because at our church, one of our maybe you could say like sayings or one of the, I could say values that we have, one of our core values is leading by example, not by parking space. And it's this idea of we as leaders, we don't lead because of the parking space that says leader on it. Or we don't lead because of our title. We lead by the example of our life. And we would never ask someone to do something that we're not willing to do. And we're not going to be doers rather than we're going to be beers. Before we ever do, we're going to be. And before we ever teach somebody, we're going to learn it first. Before we ever get up and and share maybe what God has put on the heart for the church, we want to make sure we reflect that and we internalize that and say, wait, have I walked that walk? And this is something that has really come from my dad. My dad's really big on this, and he's passed this down. And I really do see this verse play out in our family because I do believe the blessings in my life are attributed to the integrity of my parents. Because of the integrity of my parents. And if you know my parents, I know that all of us are nodding our head in agreement because the life that they live, the discipline, the responsibility, uh, their ability to say no to certain things that they know aren't for them, but then step into the yeses of life. They are so on it and they so live a life that's pure and righteous before the Lord. And I believe I'm walking in those blessings. I am walking in Proverbs 20, verse 7, because I see it in my parents. I am blessed because of their integrity. And maybe this challenges you today if you're a parent. This challenges me, whenever I have children, to walk in integrity because it's not just my life that's on the line. It's not just my reputation, it's those that come from me. It's my children's reputation and their lives that come from my integrity. You see, integrity means to live truthfully and consistently before God. And in Proverbs, when it comes to wisdom, integrity matters more than appearance. It matters more than how much money you got in the bank. It matters more than, you know, how you look and how you approach other people. Because a person of integrity does right even when no one's watching. Integrity isn't just proven out in the open. Integrity is proven behind closed doors. Meaning their words match their actions. The who they say they are and what they say and what they tell other people they truly are. And their private life and their personal life, they're aligned. They're not one way on stage or one way in front of people and then a complete different person behind closed doors. I think it's really hard for us because we're so used to people frankly being different, and they are one way on social media or one way in front of you, and then they completely change behind closed doors. And we're actually seeing this more and more with all of these documentaries coming out. I can't watch a single documentary that's like, we thought we knew him, but we didn't. Or we thought we knew her and we thought she was amazing, but then now we saw all of the skeletons in her closet. There's just too many people that are living this life, and as believers, we just got to get strong and draw a line and say, no more faking it. No more being fake in front of people, and then our true colors come out. No, no, let's let's get down to the root of it. Let's be honest people behind closed doors and honest people in front of people. And if that's hard for you, then ask the Lord to help you. Because we as believers, we've gotta, we've really gotta get a hold of this because the integrity of the body of Christ will be in judgment because so many believers have no integrity. We will actually affect the entire body of Christ and taint people's view of the body of Christ because each time we're not integrous, people see that. And people are gonna correlate, and this wasn't even in my notes. If she's a believer, if he's a believer, and this is what they do, then all believers do this. Where we have to go, no, enough's enough. As believers, we're going to be genuine and honest, we're gonna be true, we're gonna have values that honor God. That's gonna be us behind closed doors and in front of people. Because the the world, what we're seeing is the world is going to reward images, it's gonna reward following, shortcuts, getting there as fast as you can. All of these TV shows are like a get rich quick TV show. Like that's what they're gonna reward. Like, how much money can you get in one week? And you watch it and you go, oh my gosh, I want to be that way. But we've got to stop valuing that and start valuing the people that are honoring behind closed doors, the people that are are honest, the people that are actually doing the hard thing when no one's looking. Whenever we, and I know I'm going a little bit long, but I'm really on this because I I feel passionate about it. But whenever we have young people at our youth group that share with us, we want leadership, you know, we want to help, we want to serve, we care so much about these young people, I always tell them, I love that. The first thing you're gonna do is learn how to take care of the building. Go wash the toilets, go go lock up, go do this, go do that, go set up chairs. Because if you truly love God's people, then I want to see, based on no recognition, no attention, I want to see how much you love those people. Because if you only love people when people are watching, you don't truly love people. That's not an honest person. I want to see you in the bathroom scrubbing the toilets because I love God's people and I want to make sure the toilets are clean. I love God's people enough that every chair in this room is gonna be perfect. I love God's people enough that I'm gonna vacuum the floors, take out the trash. I'm gonna do the hard thing when no one is looking white because I genuinely love people. I'm gonna be honest. When people ask me questions or people come and maybe pressure me to say something in the moment, I'm gonna be an honest person and share from my heart why. Because I love God's people. You see, integrity is honesty, it's telling the truth. Integrity is keeping promises, it's admitting when you're wrong, it's honoring God in private moments, it's doing the hard thing, doing the thing that nobody wants to do. That's integrity. But that's where blessings come from. Why do we think blessings are gonna come from an inhonest person? An unhonest, dishonest. I got the word. Why do we believe that blessings are gonna come from an unfaithful person? Why do we believe that blessings are gonna come from a person that's only been successful in the eyes of people? I don't know about y'all, but I want to be successful when no one's watching. I want to be successful when no one can hear me. This podcast right now, I'm doing this. There's nobody in the booth. Someone's gonna take this and and edit this, but I'm all by myself. This is where I want to be honest. This is where I want to be faithful. I don't want to keep just showing faithfulness on a stage. And yes, you might say, well, this is a podcast that's that's launched around the world. I get that. But this is us being faithful when physically nobody's watching right now. And then God will take this and bless it and put his hand on it and expand it to the world where now you get to hear it. But it's because we were faithful and nobody was watching. How long did we have this podcast where there was no camera? Where it was just our voices. You we had to basically be like, Do you know who's hosting? Because maybe you didn't recognize who was hosting based on our voice. But that's the kind of leader I want to be. That's the kind of Christian that I want to be, that I'm faithful even when nobody can see what my face looks like. Because that's true integrity. And I know that I will be blessed, and the children from me will be blessed. Why? Because I was honest, I did the hard thing when no one watched, I kept my promises, and I honored God in private and in public. So here's the thing nobody comes, nobody becomes a person of integrity overnight, but it's formed slowly through obedience. So, what's the hard thing in your life that you gotta do right now? What's the one thing that's happening behind closed doors that you've got to do that you don't want to do? That's where you gotta be obedient and be faithful. God's not looking for the perfect person, but he is looking for surrender. He's looking for submission. So, I'm coming down from my intensity. The question for you today is what small choice of integrity can you make today? What small choice of integrity? Telling the truth, keeping your promise, honoring God when no one's watching, doing the hard thing, being faithful. What can you do today? Holy Spirit, I just thank you. I thank you because God, we learn integrity from you first. God, all of your miracles, most of your miracles and most of your moments in the Bible happened when nobody was watching. God, you called Moses in a cave with a burning bush. God, you promised Abraham descendants when nobody was around. God, you called Jesus when he was alone in the Garden of Gethsemane and told him what his next was. And you spoke to Jesus when he was alone. Things happen, miracles happen in private moments, God. And so I pray that all of us hold on to that and all of us lean into that. Let us be honoring to you before any person sees. In Jesus' name. Amen. So there you have it, your five minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.