examine yourself

"Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom."        Psalm 51:6

It is so easy to convince ourselves of whatever we feel comfortable with. The human heart can justify its position on just about anything especially if it feels threatened in any way.

In life we are challenged often as far as our integrity is concerned. There's always the temptation, and opportunity to fall short in the area of 'honesty'. We can either lie to ourselves by telling ourselves that we are in the right or not guilty of what we are being confronted with. It's much easier to do that than to take a cold hard look at whatever it is and face it.

God takes pleasure in the integrity of His people. He wants truth to always characterize us, deep on the inside. This requires constant self-judgement. If we can't be open and honest with ourselves, then we won't be able to be honest with God or anyone else. 

Being honest with oneself could reveal or expose a problem that we may not realize is even there. Sometimes it may take a certain situation to occur to flush a problem to the surface that God wants us to deal with. At times, pride steps in and gets us to quickly justify and continued to hide what God is trying to get us to face. It takes courage to look within ourselves and be honest about what is in the deep recesses of the heart. It takes courage to say, "I did lie, I did refuse to deal with that situation, or I did mistreat that person."

God gives each of us plenty of time to handle our business with integrity. He gave Ananias and Saphirra that same chance, but they chose to lie, and as a result, instant judgement took their lives because they lied to the Holy Spirit within them. They thought they were only lying to Peter, but they lied to God, and paid with their lives. That tells you how much God detests dishonesty! 

It's always better to sit in judgement of our own actions, words, and behaviors and to stay on top of our character. If we fail to do that, eventually others will be privy to the lack of integrity within us, and lose respect for not only the ministry God gave us, but for anything we say.