How to live with cheating and fraud? ...

Tuesday, Oct 23, 2012. How do we live in a world, where cheating and fraud are common? How do we manage to deal with the daily difficulties? Do we keep our hope? Do we stay on a straight way? How do we manage?

Living in a world where cheating is common …

We do not need to talk about it: cheating is very widely spread. There is the “little” cheating, that which everyone does. And there are the larger cases, which might be less frequent, but nevertheless common. Every year there are more than 24.000 cars stolen in Germany alone. That is about 2000 cars per month, about 60 per day. That is not counting the break in to houses and many other things. Are humans generally corrupt?

I do not want to know how many people pay their household help without paying taxes, social benefit and insurance to the state. This is also stealing. You take away from the state, which is the community of all living in it. You also take away the pension from those who are not registered when they work for you. There is, of course, much more. When it comes to the business area and to public finances, there seems to be a lot of cheating as well. Money is moved from here to there, just to keep it away from the state or from others. It seems to be ok to try to keep as much as possible, but quickly we reach a state where we cannot distinguish right and wrong any more!

How do you manage to stay clean when cheating is so widely spread? We need to remind ourselves that we are asked to be fully truthful and trustworthy. That also means that we can not cheat any more. We can not steal and we need to be completely honest - even if that costs us a fortune!

God's promises …

There is God's promise, that he will be with us. He is the “good shepherd”. He will guide us and provide what we need. He knows, what we need. He sees our situation. He also knows all the challenges and temptations. He knows!

God gives us a promise: the table which is prepared in the presence of my enemies. It is the promise of blessing, of experiences which show that God is truly faithful. Yes, it is possible to follow him. Not by our own strength, but by his mercy. When we rely on him, we win.

God promises his power, to withstand the temptations. It is not that we would know how to do it ahead of time. But when the time is there, his power will hold us and help us. And we will experience “Shurely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23). What a promise! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts