Speaker: Bonnie Sala | Series: Reset | In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:6

 

It was the end of the race; the finish line in view.  Spaniard Ivan Anaya trailed Kenyan runner Abel Mutai.  Mutai had held a long lead, but suddenly Anaya watched Mutai stop when he apparently thought that he had crossed the finished line! The Spanish runner realized that the Kenyan had been confused by the signs along the racecourse, which were in Spanish.  Anaya shouted to Mutai but he couldn’t understand, and so, Anaya pushed Mutai over the finish line, giving him the win!

Reporters asked,  Why didn’t you take advantage of Mutai’s mistake, to win?”  “What would be the merit of my victory?” Anaya asked in return.  “What would be the honor of that medal? What would my Mom think of that?” Anaya chose to put another first that day but his decision to act with integrity was no doubt, made long before.

Another young man, this one in the Bible, made a decision to do what was right before his moment of decision came, and his name was Daniel.  The King James Version of Daniel 1:8 tells that Daniel “purposed in his heart” to make choices that were pleasing to God.  He decided, long before the moment of pressure, of temptation, to do what was right.  What about each of us?  What types of decisions have we already purposed in our hearts?

Resource Reading:  Genesis 39:6-12