Most of us played games as children or played them as parents with our children. In a recent families.com forum, one of the games that kept cropping up was ‘The Game of Life.’ I remember it was my son’s favorite game when he was young.
You can tell a lot about a person by the way the play a game. Years ago we had a friend who was a godly Christian man. But play a game of cards or a board game like Monopoly with him and a while other side of him emerged. He became fiercely competitive. It was win at all costs.Some people are like this in real life. They will walk over anyone to get to the top.
In the book I read recently, Dr. Jeffrey Brown made this point Pregame Warm-Up.
‘Every day you get yourself out of bed, out the door, and off to work, the temptation to sacrifice your integrity is staring you down.’
You think to youself, it would be handy to have a set of rules as comes with most games. But the truth is ‘God has already given us the ultimate rule book, one that shows us how to win every time we play.’
Nehemiah put Hanani in charge of Jerusalem after the walls had been rebuilt. Why? Because ‘he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do,’ Nehemiah 7:2. Job was another man who maintained his integrity despite all the hardships and tragedy he encountered, Job 2:3, 9, 27:5. Our aim should be to be like them.
Proverbs has a lot to say about integrity. ‘The man of integrity walks securely but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.’ Proverbs 10:9. Or this, ‘The integrity of the upright guides him, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity,’ Proverbs 11:3. You might also want to investigate Proverbs 13:6, and 29:10.
Dr Jeffrey Brown declares, ‘Proverbs tells us that person who has integrity also possesses wisdom, understanding, mercy and favor from God. When we follow His rules, using character and integrity to win, victories are translated into spiritual strength.’ As Christians shouldn’t that be our aim?
In the remainder of the book Dr Brown outlines 7 principles for winning in the game of life while maintaining integrity. Each principle is covered in a chapter.
Integrity is often missing in today’s world whether in business, sport, relationships, or marriage. This book is helpful for applying godly principles of integrity to all of our life and the choices we make each day.
Bible verses from The New International Version
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