I remember attending a training course during my tenure in a secular firm, some years ago, where the trainer stressed the need for 100% efficiency.
In spheres of activity such as banking, maternity hospitals, he emphasized that nothing less than 100% would do. How true! Considering the countless entries in Bank records everyday, one can well imagine the ‘confusion’ in banks if they are only 99.9% efficient in posting all ledger entries properly. How many wrong entries would there be, leading to acute customer dissatisfaction! For that matter if there is only 99.9% perfection in maternity hospitals on handing the right babies to the right parents, how many parents would end up with children, who are not actually theirs! Then our faculty came to the subject of air-travel safety and said “What if there is only 99.9% efficiency in such a critical matter involving safety of human lives”.He not even complete the sentence that we ALL-the trainees who had flown to the training centre that very morning- now shifting uneasily in our seats nodded approvingly.
That set me, thinking ‘How many times we are less than 100% obedient to our Heavenly Father? If the secular service providers are not satisfied with any thing less than 100% efficiency, then why we should be content with less than 100% obedience to our Creator and Redeemer, whilst living for Him?
Scriptures using some examples warn us about some compromising Christians whose faith “had crashed” when they had wilfully “lowered their efficiency”… (I Timothy 1:19-20)!
On the subject of 100% obedience, let Apostle Paul’s motto be ours…
“So our aim is to please Him always in everything we do, whether we are here in this body or away from this body and with Him in heaven” (II Corinthians 5:9 TLB).
By the way, “How’s your spiritual efficiency today”?
Prayer: Father, I confess that many a time, I have been less than 100% obedient to you. Help me always to give the best, nothing less than the very best to you…when it comes to obedience. In Jesus’ Name. Amen
Suresh Manoharan