We’ve been spending some time talking about integrity. This virtue is about living wholeheartedly for God no matter the situation.

Not only does your integrity honour God, but it blesses the people around you. Proverbs 11:30 says: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life…” When someone lives in a way that is righteous—i.e. living rightly before God and others—they are like a tree which provides a home for birds and oxygen for our lungs. Just as a tree blesses, so do people when they live rightly in the sight of God.

A man was given too much change after purchasing something in a corner store. He turned around and brought back the extra money. After he explained what happened, the woman behind the cash register broke down in tears. She was just so very so grateful. The man wasn’t sure what was happening, but then he learned the backstory.

This had happened before. Her boss had told her that if it happened again, she would lose her job. She was a single mom, struggling to get by. So the man’s integrity made a real and powerful difference in that clerk’s life!*

When you act with integrity—with wholeheartedness before God—you might not always see the difference it makes, but God sees it, and it helps others in ways beyond your knowing.

I wonder how the integrity you show will be a real and powerful help to someone in ways beyond your knowing. Trust God, and then trust God to work.

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life…”

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Notes:

–Coming soon on ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’: 10 Un-Popular Things Jesus Said. Stay tuned.

–*As in: Craig Groeschel, Altar Ego: Becoming Who God Says You Are (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 101.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.