Integrity (Quiet Times)

1. DRIFTING AWAY

PROVERBS 21:16, HEBREWS 2:1, HEBREWS 3:12-14, HEBREWS 4:1

In the last week, two faithful sisters have privately confessed some rather serious sin to me. One had committed sexual immorality with a man; another had been deliberately deceitful at work. A couple of days ago, I stole a free ride on a local train. I could have purchased the necessary ticket but I would have then missed the train. It was so easy to entertain irrational thoughts that made my sinful choice seem okay: I’ve been serving other people for twelve hours today, I deserve a break; I don’t feel well, it’s cold and I need to get home fast; money’s really tight this month…1

Recently I’d read a newspaper article about how a lack of integrity in small things (like cheating on taxes) inevitably leads to worse sin: “’Cheating is especially easy to justify when you frame situations to cast yourself as a victim of some kind of unfairness….then it becomes a matter of evening the score, you’re not cheating, you’re restoring fairness.’ “ (sounds a lot like my sinful self-talk!) “The boilerplate tale of a good soul gone wrong is well known. It begins with small infractions – illegally downloading a few songs, skimming small amounts from the register, lies of omission on taxes – and grows by increments. The experiment becomes a hobby that becomes a way of life….” The article called this moral slide a “slippery slope” and stated that people subconsciously seek shortcuts more than they realise, adding that we tend to overestimate negative characteristics that we think are present in other people. 2 Wow! I think God inspired that article to be written, and made sure I saw it!

This Hebrew word “dead” in Proverbs 21:16 is “rapha,” and it means simply dead as we normally understand it, but the definition literally is “ghosts of the dead, shades, spirits:” it carries the sense of being flaccid, weak, void of blood and animal life, therefore weak and languid like a person who is ill, but not devoid of powers of mind, such as memory.2

• Is there any area where my conscience is telling me I am compromising, or in danger of compromising truth or righteousness or honesty or integrity? Write it down, pray about it, walk in the light about it and tell someone about it today

1 I went back and bought a valid ticket for that trip on the train -- tore it up and threw it away.

2”Why do we cheat? Studies say it may be because life can feel so cruel,” Benedict Carey, International Herald Tribune, Monday, April 18, 2011, p. 20

3 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for rapha' (Strong's 7496)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 26 Apr 2011. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
Strongs=H7496&t=KJV >

2. NO ONE WHO CARES ABOUT MY SOUL

PSALM 142

I was privileged to be in Sweden recently for a women’s day event at the church in Stockholm, so I was reading a little bit in my Swedish Bible. Verses 4 and 7 of Psalm 142 really leapt out at me from the page when I read them in Swedish. Verse 4 reads, (my translation), “…no one cares for my life. There is no one who asks about my soul.” I shudder to think that I have sometimes felt that way in the church. We meet and spend time talking about superficial things, but do we care about the condition of one another’s soul? This makes me so grateful for our renewed commitment in Birmingham to one-another discipling relationships, and all the more earnest to pray and labour for our growth and success in this area. Verse 7 reads, “Lead my soul out of its prison, so that I can praise your name.”

• How is my soul today? Write down 5 characteristics that describe the condition of my soul, as far as I am aware
• Share this with God and then with another disciple at some point today
• I need to be aware that my fellow Christians (and certainly those not in a right relationship with God) need help to lead their soul out of prison. What kind of “prison” could confine the soul of a person? Write down a few ideas…and now my own prison: describe this
• Decide to care more about people’s souls: think about some loving questions that I can be prepared to ask in fellowship next time, and as I go through my day today with acquaintances and colleagues, which could help to free a soul in prison. Pray for God’s insight and love as I strive to improve in this way.

3. DEALING WITH MY PLANK

PROVERBS 10:25; 12:7; MATTHEW CHAPTER 7

What can I put into practise from this chapter today? I focused on verses 3-5.

• Describe the plank that’s in my eye today. (seems very big, blocks my vision, keeps me from seeing clearly…Jesus tells me to take it out myself, so I must be able to manage this particular operation myself…)It really helps me to think ONLY about the plank that’s in my eye, and banish from my thoughts completely what’s going on with other people around me. Absolutely no comparisons allowed! (I can tend to think that my problem is not so very bad, really, and that leads to my not really being very serious about working on it – because there are many more urgent problems going on all around me – and so I wind up really being the hypocrite Jesus rebukes here, as I never do deal with this thing in my eye. I think everyone else has a plank and I have a speck. 3
• Pray specifically about this thing. Now that I’m in touch with the condition of my soul, talk to God about it thoroughly.
• Pray deeply about someone else’s speck

4. DO NOT PUT YOUR TRUST IN PRINCES

PSALM 146, 1 SAMUEL 16:7

Funny, that I’m reading Psalm 146 the day after watching the royal wedding here in England, between Prince William and Kate Middleton. Some of my single women friends were sad yesterday, after being immersed in the beautiful pageantry and some of the undeniably-fairy-tale-like aspects of the whole thing. So many commentators praising the fabulous dress, and not one word among them about the heart of purity that God would have wanted the white to represent (the couple had been living together for some time before the wedding).

• Make a list of all the characteristics attributed to God in this psalm, and all those attributed to me (man, humans)4
• What can I do today to be like God in verses 7-9: Can I somehow uphold the cause of the oppressed? Do I know anyone physically hungry or blind, or spiritually hungry or blind, that I am able to feed, or assist, if not today, then this week? (When was the last time I studied the Bible with someone to help them become a Christian – or even offered to?) Is anyone trapped that I could help to set free? Is anyone bowed down that I could encourage and lift up? Or maybe someone needs help to bow down and take their burdens to God in prayer, and I could pray with them?
• Decide to do some of this today and this week. (The women I know who are most secure and trust most easily in God are the ones who are most often putting verses 7-9 into practise)

4 Today, this is how I’d describe my “plank:” (I have to keep remembering that this is something that Jesus said I must take out of my eye, so I must identify something that I can remove myself – i.e., I can get the help I need , it will come out, I don’t have to wait. ) I think my plank has to do with pride, contentment, and self-discipline. Pride, because I think I should be better than I am (example: I think I should be able to do more than I am able. I have an unsober estimate of myself, an inflated view of what I can do; I am not hearing the voices of those who love me who tell me I already try to do too much. I get disappointed with myself when I make mistakes (can’t find my wallet, rushing around when I need to leave, racing for the train, forgot to bring something important with me) or need to deal with weaknesses (not filing e mails promptly and letting my inbox swell till I’m overwhelmed) I need to learn to be content with doing a little bit at a time, when that’s what’s called for, and be content with that). I steal my own faith and joy by not simply accepting God’s grace when I don’t live up to my own expectations. I don’t think about this deep enough when my soul is troubled, and wind up trusting in my own emotions or thoughts, going in my own strength, hoping I’ll feel better, rather than turning to God more often during the day in humility, admitting my need, connecting with him and his grace.

5 Characteristics attributed to Man: I need to tell my soul to praise God as long as I live, all my life; princes are like all mortal men, who cannot save; my spirit will depart; my spirit will return to the ground; my plans and everyone’s plans one day come to nothing (I remember this when my mother died); my help is God, my hope is the Lord; I can be oppressed, hungry, in prison, blind, bowed down; I can be righteous; I can be an alien, fatherless, a widow; I can be wicked. (I’m assuming what is true of “mankind” can be true of me).

God: is help; God is hope; God is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in it; God remains faithful forever. God upholds the cause of the oppressed; feeds the hungry, frees prisoners, gives sight to the blind, uplifts the bowed down;. God loves the righteous. God watches over the alien, sustains the fatherless, sustains the widow. God frustrates the ways of the wicked. God reigns forever. God is worthy of all praise!