A Reflection On Integrity

When I want God’s truth to reach my heart

Psalm 51—King David’s confessional psalm—contains an acknowledgment of one of God’s greatest desires for us: integrity. God wants His truth and wisdom to reach to our core, not just adorn our outward expressions. He has no tolerance for hypocrisy. To the degree that His wisdom does not reach to our innermost parts—that His Spirit does not transform the very core of our being—then to that degree we have become like the scribes of Jesus’ day: experts in the Word but devoid of its power. Our mouths speak godliness, but our hearts deny it. None of us is perfect in our integrity, of course. We all have inconsistencies. But those inconsistencies should be steadily disappearing if we are growing in the strength of God’s Spirit.

Test yourself often. Do the words of your mouth reflect the thoughts of your heart? Like David, we must know that God is zealous for our consistency. We must reflect Him from within, or we don’t reflect Him at all.

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Psalm 51:6, NIV