T.E.S.T. – Try Every Single Time

Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash

The moment we see that an overwhelming situation is a test is the moment we’re empowered to overcome. Not by overcoming the moment itself as if we could do that. But by our reframing the moment. Not that the moment is simply more tolerable, but we can see the moment as a test and worth every bit just to:

Try

Every

Single

Time

This didn’t make sense to me when God first spoke it. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. This is not about mastering our spirituality in our own strength, for that is folly. This is about resolving to please God because we can.

This is about seeing everything in life as a test, particularly the extenuating circumstances, and as a test, the extenuating circumstance, one at a time, as they only come one at a time, is passable.

Let’s look at some facts of what tests do to us:

1.      We fail at the level of our will. Sometimes when we stop, we stop because we stop trying.

2.      Having failed, we lose heart. The test overwhelms us. We stop trying. We choose to give up.

3.      Believing we can do a thing is simply about the hope we have in us to have a go. We do this by trying. Even in the mode of despair there’s power in reframing our thinking.

4.      We overcome by not giving up. By continuing in our trying. If we keep trying we don’t give up.

5.      Every test is a matter of awareness — that we’re aware we’re being tested. Then, in knowing life tests us, it’s simply the decision of trying, of reframing, of choosing a hopeful joy as we do the difficult thing, even as we don’t enjoy doing the thing we have to do.

6.      Every test is passable. We pass the test by trying. And even if we fail, we have tried. To try is to please God.

7.      Having seen how trying works we learn the benefit of trying when we could give up. No matter how bad things get we see the impact of trying.

God first spoke to me about how life tests us amid a season of testing nearly 15 years ago. It has been a powerful lesson that remains true today.