“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
— 1 Corinthians 10:13

Life is a test. What do I mean by that? God has given us a free will, and every experience we have in life is an opportunity to choose how we are going to respond. The Lord wants us to cling to Him continually, to look to Him for wisdom and strength to handle every temptation and trial, so that we overcome.

In 1 Corinthians 10:13 the Lord is telling us that trials and temptations are common to man and that we don’t have to face them without Him. Nothing you will face in life is so unique that no one has ever dealt with it before. All trials have varieties of color, but at the end of the day they are similar at the root. The difference is in how we choose to handle them.

God wants you to choose to overcome—to not lose yourself in frustration but to respond in peace. He wants you to choose to overcome in love, in faith, and with a sound mind. Every time you choose correctly, you get stronger in the spirit and ascend further into the light.

I want to encourage you to realize that all the challenges, all the temptations, all the trials in life are tests. Be cognizant of that at all times because Revelation 2:7 tells us that he who overcomes will inherit the paradise of God. We need to choose God all day and every day because to the degree that we do, we will be rewarded and shine in His glory forever and ever.

Father, I thank You that You have made a way for me to be victorious in life. Help me to choose to overcome—to choose Your ways and not my own, to follow Your Spirit and not my flesh. Help me to endure hardship as a good soldier.

Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider, Rivers of Revelation (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2020), Used by permission.