Integrity and Influence
Every week Pastor Chuck puts together a study guide for his sermon that includes discussion and reflection questions at the bottom. One of the questions for this week is:
“Where in your life are you most tempted to compromise your convictions in order to avoid pressure, conflict, or discomfort?”
This week’s sermon is on integrity, and Pastor Chuck will be highlighting the integrity of two women who chose to honor God in spite of great personal risk from the king. Pastor Chuck defined the integrity shown here as “choosing to obey God over people, even when it comes at personal risk.”
Exodus 1:17 says, “But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.”
Pressure, conflict, and discomfort come in many different forms. But the important part is not to figure out what trials may come our way; instead, it is being steadfast in our resolve to honor God when faced with these situations.
This was the attitude of Daniel. Daniel was taken captive to Babylon and thrown into a completely different culture. But in Daniel 1:8a it says, “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself…”
Daniel was faced again and again with pressure, conflict, and discomfort, but through it all he honored God. One of the things that impresses me most about Daniel is that he didn’t just focus on one area of obedience while ignoring the rest. Sometimes we can adopt an “the ends justify the means” approach to these things and become so focused on honoring one teaching of the Bible that we neglect others.
In his dealings with the leadership of Babylon, Daniel not only honored God by refusing to eat food offered to idols or to pray to idols, but also by the way he interacted with the very people causing his discomfort.
Matthew 5:10 says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
There is a kind of persecution that is not really persecution, but instead the repercussions of our own actions — because we were so zealous for one thing that we ignored other areas of righteousness and brought trouble upon ourselves. There should be a completeness to our actions that reflects righteousness in every area of life.
There was a completeness to Daniel’s integrity.
Look at what it says in Daniel 6:4–5:
“Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, ‘We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.’”
Because of that, he is described this way one verse earlier in Daniel 6:3:
“Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.”
I don’t think it is much of a stretch to conclude that Daniel’s influence grew because of his integrity.
There is a lot in the story of Daniel that we do not have time to cover in this devotional, but I encourage you to spend some time reading Daniel 1–6 this week. At the end of chapter 6, the king makes a proclamation about the power of Daniel’s God:
Daniel 6:25–28
“Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth:
‘Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel,
for he is the living God,
enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed,
and his dominion shall be to the end.
He delivers and rescues;
he works signs and wonders
in heaven and on earth,
he who has saved Daniel
from the power of the lions.’
So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”
“Daniel’s integrity became part of God’s revelation to an entire nation, and Daniel continued to prosper and grow in influence and impact.”
It’s clear to me that Daniel’s integrity before God aided both of these things.
Here is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. We want to honor God, and we want to increase in influence and impact… but how do we know it will be worth the pain?
All I can say is: you won’t know until you try it.
This is what verse 4 of the hymn “Trust and Obey” illustrates:
“But we never can prove
The delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows
And the joy He bestows
Are for those who will trust and obey.”1
How do we know it will be worth it? We will only know it when we surrender everything to Him and watch Him work. It is only then that we experience the favor and joy found in trusting and obeying Him.
So back to our opening question:
“Where in your life are you most tempted to compromise your convictions in order to avoid pressure, conflict, or discomfort?”
Spend some time in prayer and reflection with God this week, asking God to reveal where you may be compromising your integrity. Then ask Him for the courage and strength to honor Him in those situations. And if you need encouragement, spend some time reading Daniel chapters 1–6.
Adam
- CCLI Song # 22094 – Daniel Brink Towner | John Henry Sammis ↩︎