Integrity as a Whole

"O LORD, who may stay in your tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one who walks with integrity, does what is righteous, and speaks the truth within his heart." -Psalms 15:1-2 Psalms 15 begins with David asking God this: “Who will enjoy your presence, your protection, and peace”? The answer is straightforward. A person of integrity enjoys the presence and power of God. And who is a person of integrity? Someone who validates his faith, by his actions and words is a person of integrity. People who lack integrity are fractured. They can quote scripture, but they cannot live it. They can pray most eloquently, but their prayers avail nothing. The inward does not match the outward. To praise God with lip service has only one aim - to gain the praise of man. Such are those who do not abide with God. Cheaters are they, who copy off the pages of true believers’ lives. Cheating most of all themselves of knowing Christ first hand. Honesty goes a long way with God. Conviction rather than convenience motivates an honest man. What he says, he will do. He shuts both his mouth and his ears to gossip. He loathes the acts and lives of wickedness but honors those who follow the Lord. He lives this way not because they are conditions to know God, rather they are the results of it.