What It Takes to Keep Things Real

In a culture that is absolutely obsessed with appearance and image, how in the world do you keep it real when everybody else is faking it? They don’t have integrity. They’re scooting by and they’re skimming and they’re cheating. They’re not keeping their promises.

How do you keep it real?

There’s only one way. You’ve got to care more about God’s approval than the approval of other people. That’s the only way you’ll ever become a person of integrity. Because if you care about what God thinks, then you’re going to do the right thing. If you care more about what other people think, you’re often going to do the wrong thing.

Psalm 119:9 says, “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word” (NIV).

The only way you’re going to know what God approves of and what he thinks of you is by reading the Bible. You must stay in God’s Word! If you don’t, you won’t have the strength and the stamina to live with integrity.

If I don’t have a daily quiet time with God in the Word, if I miss it for even a few days, I notice it — everyone notices it! — because I start getting cranky. If I don’t stay connected to God through his Word, I would not have any spiritual power to clearly explain the Word of God to you. I would not have the strength to live with integrity.

Living with integrity takes spiritual power, because what is right is often unpopular. You’re going to get tired trying to do the right thing and be real and keep the right motives, and you need to be equipped and refreshed.

You do that by reading and studying the Bible, God’s Word.