Beginning in 2007, the REVEAL research project surveyed the members of more than a thousand churches. They wanted to determine the percentage of churchgoers who are actually propelled by their faith to love God and love others with their whole hearts. Guess how many met these qualifications? Eleven per cent! Nearly nine out of ten believers did not make the grade. Think about it this way: if a school graduated only eleven per cent of its students, if a hospital healed only eleven per cent of its patients, if a sports team won only eleven per cent of its games, if a home builder completed only eleven per cent of his projects, wouldn’t changes be made? About 2.2 billion people on our planet call themselves Christians. That’s approximately a quarter of the world’s population. If the survey is any indication, about two billion of those Christians are chugging along on a fraction of their horsepower. What would happen if they got a tune-up or decided to step up or rise up? How much joy would be unleashed? How much wisdom would be shared? How many marriages would be saved? How many wars would be prevented? How much hunger would be eliminated? What would it take for you to be part of the eleven per cent – more compassion, more conviction, more courage? What attitudes would you need to discontinue – greed, guilt, negativity, a critical spirit? Here’s the good news: you can. With God’s help, you can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want to be. You can be ‘transformed…from glory to glory.’

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.