Photo courtesy of Steve Parker.

We hope you enjoy this re-post from May 25, 2014. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. – Revelation 3:5, KJV

In May 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven, Commander, United States Special Operations Command, gave the commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin’s graduation ceremony. A Navy Seal for thirty-six years, Admiral McRaven taught the graduates ten lessons he learned from basic training. Here is one of the lessons:

Every day during training, you were challenged with multiple physical events: long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics – something designed to test your metal. Every event had standards, times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those times – those standards – your name was put on a list, and at the end of the day, those on the list were invited to a circus. A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit. No one wanted a circus. A circus meant that for that day, you didn’t measure up. A circus meant more fatigue, and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult and more circuses were likely. At some time during seal training, everyone – everyone – made the circus list. But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time, those students who did extra hours of calisthenics got stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength and resiliency. Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core. But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.

Admiral McRaven succinctly articulated a great truth: we will fail, and when we fail we will have a choice to let our failures either render us useless, or to let them make us stronger.

Some trials will be of the kind that will test not only our human limits, but our spiritual ones as well. In such cases, we will have a choice to let our trials either render our faith useless, or to let them make our faith stronger. When those times come, fall on your face before God with open Bible and with hands clasped in prayer. Plead your case before the Creator, and grab hold of His throne with all of the humility you can muster. Cast your will, your fate, and your faith at His feet, and when you do, trust Him to fight your cause like no other can!  You can and you will overcome, so long as you rest on the promises of God. As the Apostle John wrote:

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? – 1 John 5:4-5, KJV