Conquering Life's Hurdles

I ran track when I was in Junior High School, and according to the stopwatch, I was a fast runner. My best friend also ran track. He was always fascinated with the hurdles. There was one problem; he never could learn how to run them. He would start the race struggling with the first hurdle, and when he got to the four or fifth hurdle, he would start kicking them down. Eventually, he would either stumble or fall and bruise his arms and knees.

He fell so many times that the scab on his arms and knees took a long time to heal. After he had had all the bruises and scars he could take (I believe it was around the 10th or 11th grade), he quit running hurdles.

You know life is like that. There are hurdles in life, one hurdle after another. When I say life can be a hurdle, what am I talking about? I am talking about trials, hardships and troubles. Sometimes your job can be a hurdle. Sometimes your household can be a hurdle. Sometimes your attitude can be your hurdle.

A pastor was giving the children's message during church. For this part of the service, he would gather all the children around him and give a brief lesson before dismissing them for children's church. On this particular Sunday, he was using squirrels for an object lesson on industry and preparation. He started out by saying, "I'm going to describe something, and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it is." The children nodded eagerly.

"This thing lives in trees and eats nuts..." No hands went up. "And it is gray and has a long bushy tail..." The children looked at each other, but still no hands were raised. "And it jumps from branch to branch and chatters and flips its tail when it's excited..." Finally, one little boy tentatively raised his hand. The pastor breathed a sigh of relief and called on him. "Well," said the boy, "I know the answer must be Jesus ... but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!" Sometimes children can be a hurdle. We never know what they will say or do. We pray that they will do the right thing or say the right thing. But who knows?

Not only can our children be hurdles in our lives but also our relatives can be hurdles in our lives. They may not respect our right to make our own choices, so they do things to hinder us. Then there are some relatives who believe that you are supposed to bend over backward and please them. I had a lady tell me recently that she has relatives who thinks her house is the grocery store. They always need an item: sugar, salt, soap, butter, etc.

There are hurdles in life, one hurdle after another. And guess what? These hurdles are conquering many people. Life’s hurdles cause a lot of people to stumble and sometimes fall. They sometimes get skinned up, battered and bruised. And what happens, as a result? Like my friend, they give up. They throw in the towel.

We need to understand life’s hurdles are not going away because Jesus tells us in John 16:33 “in the world we are going to have troubles.” So, that means we have to learn how to deal with them, how to conquer them, how to overcome them. And Mark 10, the story about Blind Bartimeaus, helps us to do that. Mark 10:47 says, When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

American Journalist and Author, Sidney J. Harris was profoundly right: "Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves."

I don’t believe Blind Bartimaeus was a part of the ninety percent. Bartimaeus knew who Jesus was. I want you to notice this, too; I think that Blind Bartimaeus knew who he was. What do I mean? I think that Bartimaeus knew he was a child of God, and to be made well, he was supposed to have the healing power that Jesus possessed. Although Bartimaeus was a beggar, which he knew, although he was blind, which he knew, he also knew who he was. Whatever blessings Jesus was handing out that day, those blessings were supposed to be his.

If you are going to conquer the hurdles in your life, you have to recognize who you are in Christ. You have to see yourself as God sees you. Last year, more than 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft, and the crime cost roughly $5 billion, according to the U.S. Postal Service. Estimated nearly 60 million individuals have had their personal information (Name, Date of Birth, SS#, Bank account numbers, etc.) compromised in the last nine months alone.

One of the major reasons Christians struggle with conquering life’s hurdles is deception from the enemy. The enemy is out to steal your identity. He lies to you. Why? He is the father of lies, and he doesn’t want us to know the truth. He tells you that you don’t have the strength to this or that. He tells you are weak, no matter who’s on your side. Although God’s love for you is deeper than the ocean and wider than the universe, the Devil tells you that no one loves you or cares whether you live or die.

He wants wrongdoers to “think” they’re headed in the right direction, and Christ’s followers to “think” they’re headed in the wrong direction. The result is confusion takes hold of us, and our lives become a spiritual rollercoaster with ups and downs, twists and turns, round and round. So what am I saying to you? To conquer life’s hurdles, you have to know who you are in Christ. Don’t let the devil steal your identity. You say “who are you”?

Let me tell you: John 1:12-13 says “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” You are a child of God. You are a child of EL-ROI, the strong one who sees; a child of EL-EYON, the most High God; a child of JEHOVAH-RAPHA, the Lord our healer. To conquer life’s hurdles, you have to recognize you are a child of EL-SHADDAI, God Almighty.

Once you recognize that you are a child of God, you realize that there is always hope. There are no hopeless situations or hopeless people. Hope sees the unseen, feels the indescribable, and achieves, what seems out of the question, the impossible. Once you recognize that you are a child of God, you also realize “no weapon formed against you shall prosper.” In one of his Gospel songs Fred Hammond makes this point crystal clear: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper, it won’t work. God will do what he says he would do. He will stand by his word, and he will come through. God will do what he says he would do. He will stand by his word. And he will come through.”

Recognize who you are: a child of God, a child of the King of Kings, a child of the Lord of Lords, a child of the Author of Life. That's how you conquer life’s hurdles! Say it aloud:

“I am a child of God, and no weapon formed again me shall prosper.”