LIVING IN INTEGRITY AND IN LOVE

To be true to God means to be sincere with our motives and actions.  Integrity means you’re the same person in your private life and you are in your public life.  You’re the same person when you’re alone as you are when you’re at church.  What you have committed to the Lord in your heart you commit to with your actions and words.

Why would you or I not be a person of integrity?  Because of fear in our hearts, and we let it influence our motives and actions.  And so you say one thing and then do another.  And you’re not true to those around you, or to yourself, or to God until you deal with the fear in your heart.

Fear is the root cause of many things:  anger, depression, control issues, worry.  We’re afraid of rejection, abandonment, not being loved, what others think about us, tomorrow, financial loss, not having enough for retirement, of not being accepted, and the list goes on.

And then what do we do?  First we hide.  We wear masks.  We put on a front.  We don’t let others know who we really are.  And who you are when you’re alone doesn’t match who you are when you’re around other people.

Second we look for ways to get love.  We have trouble loving ourselves and loving others and loving God.  Without knowing it you’re trying to heal a “father/child” wound deep down in the center of your being. 

What you really need is the Heavenly Father’s love to heal your heart.  God tells us in His Word that His love “expels all fear” from our hearts.  What happens is that the fear in our hearts can manipulate us and control our motives and actions.

God’s Word gives us the truth:

For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” Romans 8:15 (GNT)

There is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, Romans 8:39 (GNT)

Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. 1 John 3:1 (HCSB)

Here’s what we can do based on God’s truth:

·         Cry out to God as your Father Who loves you perfectly, more so than your earthly father.

·         Choose to thank God that nothing will ever be able to separate you from His love.

·         Think long and deep about God’s great love for you.

·         Practice “resting” in God’s love.  Begin the day, spend the day, and end the day resting in God’s love for you.  Just say, “Father I choose to rest in your great love for me.”

Let God love you and transform your life such that you’re the same person inside and out.

We’ve got to give up trying to fix ourselves, control our own lives, and medicate our pain, so we can give up the ownership of our lives to God.  And when we do, we will live lives of integrity in His love.