DEVOTION: A High Percentage ~ by Shirley Corder

Jesus said: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?" Luke 15:4 NIV

One day in my early teens, I came home very excited. I received a high mark in an international music examination.

“I got 90%,” I boasted to my parents.

My mother rejoiced with pride. My father smiled gently and said, “Shirley, what happened to the other 10%? What didn’t you know?”

He was right of course. If we face surgery for cancer, we don’t want a surgeon who believes 90% is good enough. I wouldn’t drive my car over a mountain pass knowing that the brakes work 90% of the time. And not one of us would go on a cruise that advertised a 90% success rate of getting home safely.

God is also not satisfied with 90%. Jesus tells of the shepherd who had ninety-nine of his one hundred sheep. That’s 99%. Yet he went hunting for the missing animal.

No matter how many Christians get into Heaven, God continues to search for those who are lost. It’s not enough for 90% of my friends and family to be in Heaven with me. God wants 100%! And so do I.

If you are a Christian today, others helped to bring you to the Lord. Do you remember to thank God for them? Even more important, who can you reach out to today?

SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer contains 90 meditations based on her sojourn in the cancer valley.

Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at  RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook.