Devotional for July 25

This Is the Day the Lord Has Made

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:
20 This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
23 This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:19-24 (KJV)

The Morning Exhortation

Integrity is consistency between what we believe and what we do. By design we are created to be true to self and others. Two ways we can miss the integrity mark. First, we can confess we believe one thing and in practice do quite another. Second, we can believe what is not true, therefore what we do ends up being equally wrong with the follow-through. The first is a hypocrite. The second is either ignorant of the truth or willfully wicked. Hypocrisy must be guarded against and ignorance must be eliminated. Happy is the person who knows the truth and does it. Faith takes hold of the out stretched hand of God with its right hand. This putting our hand in God’s doesn’t depend on our reach or the strength of our grip. Being a believer requires our knowledge of the truth and a willingness to trust Almighty God to grasp and hold on to us. (Proverbs 4:23 ; Habakkuk 3:17-18; Job 2:9-10, 13:15-16; Romans 2:21-24; Matthew 24:50-51; Hebrews 6:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, 3:5; Romans 14:22; James 1:2-4; James 5:10-11; Hebrews 10:23; Isaiah 41:13; Psalm 32:8-9; Mark 9:24; Ephesians 3:20-21)