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“Faithful, One Hundred Percent”
FAITHFUL, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT
Wade Webster
Dr. Seuss wrote some wonderful children’s stories. Even adults can sometimes be entertained and educated by the stories. In Horton Hears A Who,Horton the elephant declares, “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent.”
I have to admit that this quote made me think. Am I faithful one hundred percent? Are you faithful one hundred percent? If we are not careful, we can settle for something less than one hundred percent faithfulness. We might settle for ninety-nine percent faithfulness; or maybe, over time, with even a little less than that.
Perhaps, you are thinking that one hundred percent faithfulness isn’t necessary. Maybe, you are thinking that one hundred percent faithfulness isn’t even possible. Let me make clear that I am not talking about sinless perfection. Only one man, Jesus Christ, has ever achieved that (Heb. 4:15). The rest of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Rom. 3:23). I am not talking about being sinless. I am talking about being faithful (Rev. 2:10). We all need to live in such a way that one day we can hear our Lord say, "Well done, Thou good and faithful servant" (Mt. 25:21).
Faithfulness is both possible and necessary. In the book of Numbers, God makes this truth very clear. We read, “And the LORD'S anger was kindled the same time, and he sware, saying, Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed the LORD” (Num. 32:10-12). Please note that God divided the spies into two categories. The first category was made up of the ten spies who did not wholly follow God and the second category was made up of the two spies who did. Those who wholly followed the Lord were allowed to enter the promised land. Those who gave less than one hundred percent faithfulness were denied entrance. Where would you have been numbered? Where would I have been? We each need to examine ourselves and make sure that we have not settled for something less than complete faithfulness. Paul wrote, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor. 13:5). We need to make sure that we are one of the few who find life and not one of the many who find destruction (Mt. 7:13-14).
