The United States is still battling with the lingering effects of the Great Recession, including unemployment, homelessness, and an overall lack of hope and faith. Although there are a plethora of underlying reasons for this temporary season of economic turmoil, no one can genuinely dispute the fact that a lack of integrity was the real culprit. Although most individuals have a general idea and can anecdotally speak about integrity, a majority of people really don’t know what it entails. Most secular dictionaries generally define integrity as “adherence to moral and ethical principles and soundness of moral character”. If you assess your life in totality (i.e., work, home, church, etc.), would you be able to confidently state that your life is marked by continual honesty and consistent adherence to biblical principles? When you find yourself in a precarious situation, do you deceive to avoid potential consequences? Is your tongue consistently filled with fruitful words, encouragement and exhortation or is it filled with deceptive speech (i.e., lies, gossip, backbiting, flattery, slander, etc.)?

If we are real with ourselves, most of us would admit that we struggle to some extent with integrity. Whether stealing time from our employers by being on the Internet and social websites like Twitter and Facebook; whether lying to our spouses so that we can enjoy some type of selfish pleasure; or whether deceiving our brethren in places of worship with fake smiles and faces – integrity is definitely an area in which we could improve this year so that we can start to live more abundantly in Christ.

Taking the above-mentioned information into consideration, how can we maintain integrity in a world filled with dishonesty, deception, moral degradation and economic and cultural chaos? The key is an intimate and progressive relationship with God. In the second chapter of the book of Job, we discover this very answer. Job, who experienced some of the most severe trials of any human that has ever lived, responds to his wife’s very profound yet cynical question, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?” Job states that we should not give up on God, because He allows you to have bad experiences in your life. We should not become bitter, dishonest, and resentful and curse God, as Job’s wife vehemently suggested. An intimate and progressive relationship with God will be filled with both mountaintop and valley experiences, but, if we can continually meditate on the holiness of God and his standards for living a blameless life, then we will maintain a life of integrity.