July 4, 2013 - John 1:23

            John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”  John 1:23

            John the Baptist was a man of conviction, who lived a life that was consistent with the message he preached.  If he told the people to repent and turn from their evil ways, he first required the same of himself.  If he called people to make straight the way of the Lord in their lives, he demanded the same in his own life.  John did not ask anything of anyone else that he didn’t ask of himself.  He spoke these words from the prophet, Isaiah, with full integrity and conviction, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.”

            When I consider the area of integrity in my life, I tend to be very hard on myself.  It’s hard for me to challenge others to make straight the path in their life if I’m not making my own way straight.  I feel so hypocritical if I say one thing to others yet am not walking it out in my own life.  The issue of personal character and integrity was vitally important to John the Baptist, and it is the same with me.  How about with you?

            Questions to consider: What does the term integrity mean to you?  Do you say one thing and do another, or require one standard for others and another for yourself?  Do you say to people only those things that you have already told yourself?

            Prayer: Father, help me to live a consistent life of integrity regardless of what the world throws at me.  Give me clarity of vision to keep my eyes on You and to “Make straight the way” for You to move in and through my life.  Amen.