Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I was born and raised in a Christian household. I was going to church every week. I was taught how to pray. I would read the Bible and memorize my verses. As I grew up, I would go to Sunday service in the mornings, and then I would go to youth group during the week. I was helping lead small groups. I was serving, I was leading games, I was leading worship. I was doing all of these things in front of other people. If you asked most of the people in my life, "Does Chris love Jesus?" They probably would have said yes, but that wasn’t the case for when people weren't around.
Public vs. Private Life
Without going into detail, if you were to look at my private life when I wasn't at church and I wasn't around other believers, you would probably say that I was anything but godly. Our Verse of the Day talks about this idea of what it truly means to live a godly life.
Let's read this together. Proverbs chapter 20, verse 7. It says, "The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them."
Who We Are Should Match What We Do
Let me ask you this. Have you ever met a chef who didn't cook? Or a surfer who didn't surf? Or a baker who didn't bake? Probably not. If you did, you would probably call them a liar. Because who we say we are should match up with what we actually do in our lives. To take that a step further, if we call ourselves children of God and we say that we are made in His image, if we call ourselves Christ-bearers, if we say that we have the Holy Spirit within us, wouldn't you expect that to come with a godly lifestyle?
Living with Integrity
See, it's important that what we say and what we believe matches up with who we are and the way that we live our lives, not just when people are watching, but especially when people aren't watching. Our verse in Proverbs doesn't say that the godly do godly things when others are around. It specifically says that the godly walk with integrity, and it's that word integrity that's really important for us. See, being somebody who has integrity means to live a moral life. It means that we are honest. Most importantly, it means that we're consistent in our character and our actions, whether people are looking or not, because we live godly lives, not to impress others and to make ourselves known, but because we're children of God, and we understand that God's ways are better than our ways.
True Transformation
We may not be perfect. I'm certainly not talking about behavioral modification, where we just change the things that we do because that's what we're "supposed" to do. What I'm talking about is asking yourself, does the truth of God's Word truly mean something to me? Do I actually believe that what He wants for my life is better than anything that I could do on my own? Do I really want the Spirit to transform the entirety of my life inside and out? Do I want to be a child of God and follow Him and love Him? It's not a threat. It's just a logical step from this is what we say we want to this is how we live in response.
A Testimony to Others
What's even more powerful is the testimony that this creates for other people. In our verse we saw that it says, "Blessed are their children who follow them." See, living this way isn't just a benefit for you. You're actually a testament of how good life with God is. I want to encourage all of us, wherever we are in life, to turn to God, to love Him, to practice obedience, to receive His blessings and then go on and be a blessing to others.
