Consistency in our Resolve

     Sorry I missed you yesterday. Frankly, I got a bit despondent of late and needed to wallow in my personal pity party, but God...I love it in the Bible when someone does or says something and then the scripture says, "but God..." I always know it's time for an intervention!
     So today I'm studying in Daniel with Beth Moore. I'm going to pretty much type out a full section of her study guide, Daniel-Lives of Integrity-Words of Prophecy, as it struck me so personally and hope it will impact you as well.  On pages 24 & 25 Moore notes the following in response to our reading of Daniel chapter one where Daniel has been taken into captivity into Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar is essentially trying to "reprogram" all the young male slaves into Babylonians (a very worldly people):
     Recall our discussion over Daniel's resolve and how it demanded something from him daily. Bone-deep resolve doesn't develop by going to church every Sunday morning or going to Bible study every Tuesday night. Important opportunities like these encourage us in our resolve, but they aren't enough to create and sustain it. Daniel's brand of resolve involved something he was challenged to practice every single day. In fact, you might say he ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Don't think for a moment he wasn't tested and tempted by the sights and scents of unclean foods. Had his decision (to eat only vegetables and water and not from the king's table) been easy, it wouldn't have demanded resolve.
     I don't know any other way to say this, and goodness knows I learned it the hard way: godliness is never accidental. Neither is victory coincidental. Both stem from up-front, daily resolve. 

C-O-N-S-I-S-T-E-N-C-Y

     The life blood of integrity is becoming the same person no matter where we are--no matter who's around. When we become people of integrity, everything we are on the inside is obvious from the outside. The Latin word for "integrity" literally means "entire." The essence of the term is wholeness and completeness. Integrity is "the quality or state of being complete or undivided." You can see, therefore, how much integrity depends on consistency. Integrity not only calls us to live inside-out, it keeps the outside from coming in. Consistency in our walk and in our talk becomes a transportable cloak of protection around us, going anywhere we go. Life becomes so much simpler when there aren't so many costume changes.
     Beth Moore finishes with this question: "Do I have to be perfect to be consistent?" And answers it as follows:
     No, we will not reach perfection in this lifetime on planet Earth, but we can certainly reach consistency. Indeed we must, or the enemy will nearly burn us alive. Never forget what a good shot he is. Satan never wastes a fiery dart by aiming at a spot covered by armor. The bull's-eye is located dead center in our inconsistency. That's where the enemy plans to bring us down.
     Wow, can I hear an amen? AMEN! KT

Daniel 1:8 Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.