Holding on to integrity

Far be it from me
That I should say you are right;
Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go;
My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. – Job 27.5-6

As Job tried to defend himself he seems to dig in his heels and stand on his faith. He told his friends that he could not agree with them. He knew his heart. He did not know why the stuff going on was going on, but he knew that it was not a result of his sin.

So huge made a determination for his life. He determined that he would not be swayed from his integrity. He would not be swayed from his righteousness. He would not be turned aside by his feelings.

It can be hard to hold on sometimes. We strive to live for God and honour Him and do right and all that and things can still go wrong. The temptation may be they to say ‘why bother?’ The temptation may be to just give up in all that and just go after the way of the world.

But despite all of his trouble and despair he was not going to give in.

It seems like today, with all the bad news and despair and poor choices around us that there are Christians around who are willing to give up integrity for pragmatic choices.

No matter how bad things seem we cannot give up our Christian integrity. We must hold true to God’’s righteousness. We can’t afford to sacrifice those things on the altar of pragmatism.