100 Percent
This lesson is about how much effort you put into your faith.

Introduction
I was amused by a t-shirt I saw one day.
It starts of by saying that I give 100% at work. 13% on Monday, 27% on Tuesday, and ending up by Friday with a grand total of 100%.
While this is cute, I have been thinking just how much effort we are putting into our spiritual lives.
I am just wondering what our percentage would be on a daily basis.
Do we add it all up to reach 100% and figure that is good enough?

For many Christians, it appears they try to follow a similar formula.
Sunday – 88%
Monday – 6%
Tuesday – 4%
Wednesday – 2%
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 0%
Does that describe your relationship to God and the effort you put forth in His service?

Now, compare that to the percentage of time Satan is using to separate you from God.
While we act as if we do not care about others going into action, we should know that the enemy is plotting, conspiring, and planning the destruction of as many souls as possible.
If we do nothing about it, Satan will succeed.
The most important thing you need to know about Satan is that he does not want you to go to heaven.
1 Peter 5:8 tells us that Satan is prowling about seeking whom he may devour.
Well, the people he is seeking is not every soul.
The reason is because he already has most souls already.
Satan works very hard upon the souls of Christians to get them to depart the love and grace of God.
Sadly, many who wear the name of Christ are playing into Satan's traps when they give anything less than 100% effort in their spiritual warfare.
Satan is also using his many tools to sidetrack us and help us forget to call upon God for our protection and guidance.

In the Old Testament, we have many examples of the children of Israel seeking protection from foreign powers, and not seeking the protection from God.
All too often, we seek protection from sources other than God, and we suffer because of our choices.
It also appears that for many people, the maximum effort in protecting their souls is by attending worship services once a week.
When it gets down to the truth, what they are doing is hoping that God will be happy they are there that one hour, while their mind is upon worldly things the other 167 hours of the week.
Do you realize that this is another tool of Satan?
Satan wants us to feel that we are religious and that God approves of us, all the while knowing that if we are not 100% committed to serving the Lord, we will be lost.

The 100 percent effort we should be doing is described by the word diligence.
Diligence means to make haste to make every effort.
How would you feel if your favorite sports team payed a player millions of dollars to just put forth 50 percent effort in the game? and maybe 50% in practice?
You know that adds up to 100 percent.
But somehow, I do not think you will view it that way.

Being human means that we do other things;
not just pray and go to church all the time.
We sleep a good percentage of the time.
We who work are active many hours of the week.
We take time to eat and do other things which are considered necessities.
The problem with this picture is that many consider that going to church one hour a week is sufficient to make up for all this other time.
That is the wrong perspective to take.

The mark of a true Christian is one that we should not be satisfied with what we are today, but be more focused upon what and who we will be tomorrow.
This reminds us of Paul's words in Philippians 3:14. Paraphrasing: Forgetting what lies behind, I press onward for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
We must realize we should be followers of Christ 100% of the time.
We must not forget Christ is our Lord, King, and Master.
We can keep a spiritual perspective even while we do these other activities.
We are to focus upon things above and not on this earth (Colossians 3:1-2).
That does not mean we do not have to pay attention to our driving or that we are not allowed to sleep.
Even Christ told His disciples to rest and relax even though there was much work to do.
And God does allow us time for recreation, family, work, shopping, sleeping.
God just does not want you to forget what is most important of all.

As Christians, what we need to do is seek how we can dedicate more time to spiritual matters in our daily living.
Others can encourage you to do so, but only you have the control of choice in the matter.
Just imagine how spiritual you could be if you devoted as much time to your soul's salvation as Satan devotes towards your destruction.
Your soul is at stake.
Take time to be serious about this subject.

Conclusion
Your soul depends upon it, and because of your relationships, the souls of others may depend upon it also.
Don't you want to see them get to heaven?
Remember that is why you are to be guiding them.
Remember that Satan will use any and all means necessary to keep you out of heaven.
Only you can decide if you go to heaven or hell. It all depends upon the effort you put forth.

By Carey Scott

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