As a young rookie cop in training, I rehearsed my response to critical situations. What would I do if a suspect pulled a gun on me? What would I do if someone tried to jump off a bridge and suicide attempt? What would I do if my duty weapon failed to fire? To those who have never walked in a place where danger is possible and always present, this can seem neurotic. It is how people train for survival and overcoming a threat should the need arise. To dismiss this process of rehearsal is foolish.

During those first weeks of training, my Field Training Officer would toss out scenarios to me I had never considered before I put on a badge. Sometimes I would have a brain freeze and look like a deer in the headlights as I searched for an answer. My training officer did this on purpose to help increase my chances for survival on the streets. Years later, I did the same thing with the recruits I trained.

After a few months of this imagining and responding to potential threats, situational awareness was ingrained in my mind. There is a parallel in matters of the Spirit. If we don’t prepare how we will respond in a moment of spiritual peril we will become a victim, not an overcomer when sin or compromise comes our way. What would you do when lust makes its appeal or when an opportunity to walk in a lack of financial integrity presents itself? These are real-life spiritual issues and if not rehearsed we might choose a path that will lead to the death of a relationship or the death of our character.

We can rehearse our response to the negative enticements of life before they occur. This is not a guarantee we will live without failure. What it will do is reduce the surprise factor when these things do come our way. Our first response will then be our rehearsed response because our lives were prepared for these situations under the teaching and training influence of God’s Spirit.