Today’s 333 Devotional: “The Unhealthy Art of Compromise”

When we find ourselves compromising in one area, what ends up happening is that we begin to compromise in just about every area of our lives.

David compromised his faith by going into the land of the Philistines to escape Saul. God never told David to go, instead David reasoned it out on his own, and this was the start of David’s life of compromise (1 Samuel 27).

David was now living on the good graces of Achish, king of Gath, instead of trusting the Lord. Gath was the city where Goliath was born, and Achish was the king that David helped to defeat.

David’s compromise now found him living with the enemy of his faith and of his people.

But David’s compromise didn’t stop there. While he and his men lived there, they defeated Israel’s enemies, but in the process killed everyone including women and children so that no one would be left that could tell on him, because then he would have to leave his compromised life.

David continued this compromise by lying to Achish saying they raided Jewish settlements. The reason for these lies was because he wanted to be in the king’s good graces so he could continue to live in the enemy’s camp.

That is the unhealthy art of the compromise; it always ends with more compromise and lies. But the saddest thing is that it ends up leading us into compromising our faith and biblical values.

Therefore, that first compromised step is literally upon a deadly landmine that’s ready to explode. Even if we compromise on something small and insignificant, it will still end up damaging other aspects of our lives. It weakens our integrity and character. It hurts our witness for Jesus and corrupts our thought process. In the end hinders our relationship with God.

Compromise is like poison, a little bit may not immediately hurt you, but as it builds up over time it will more than likely kill you.