Ever had to do a test in school/college/uni, and at the end, the tutor’s asked everyone to mark their own paper? What would you do if there was an answer you’d missed, but suddenly you remembered what it was? You’ve got the opportunity right there to change it. Nobody would know. Okay, it’s after the time allowed for the test, but it’s just one little question, and you really did know the answer, you’d just forgotten it... Those are the kind of thoughts we might have if we found ourselves in that situation. We might try to justify why it’s okay to do it just this once. But if we give in to that temptation, we’re proving that we’re potentially capable of giving in to other temptations too. Maybe bigger, more serious temptations. At first, it might not seem like it’s going to hurt anyone, so it doesn’t matter too much, but the effect it could have on us in the long run does matter. Each small, individual sin gradually chips away at our integrity. So it’s much easier to maintain our integrity than to get it back if we’ve lost it. Doing the right thing might have a cost attached to it, but it costs us more to abandon our principles and our integrity. The Bible says, ‘Like a bird hatching an egg it did not lay, so are…people who get rich by cheating. When their lives are half finished, they will lose their riches. At the end…it will be clear they were fools’ (Jeremiah 17:11 NCV). Whatever we might gain from that small temptation, we’ll end up losing at some point. So whatever’s happened in the past, today let’s commit to walking in integrity, and remember these words: ‘To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice’ (Proverbs 21:3 NIV).

What now?
If there’s a time in your past when you didn't behave with total honesty, today bring it before God and ask to move forward with Him into a life that’s full of integrity.