Hurdles can be defined as, “an obstacle or difficulty.”

Life is full of ups and downs. We all hope for more ups than downs. As the saying goes, “What goes up, must come down.”

There is a popular Christian song that speaks of ‘hills and valleys.’ It’s an uplift in spirit to be on the top of the hill, so to speak, but we must also be thankful for the valleys. I will admit it’s hard to be thankful when you’re going through a tough time, but every time I’ve thanked God for the trial that I’m in, life gets a little easier. My character starts to change.

Within the scenarios set out above, we also face obstacles or hurdles along the way.

As a Christian, you learn to comply to whatever God has planned for you. We must bend to an unexpected diagnosis; a missed promotion at work, or a let down in a relationship. How do we do this? Prayer, trust and a commitment to God. Prayer says to God, “You know my situation God, so I trust that what I’m going through is your Will.”

God’s track record with me gives me hope - that, although I’ll face hurdles, adversity in life, God’s protection and goodness has always been there and will be there again. I can then face the hurdles of life with confidence.

When the hurdles come, learn to get up and run and jump through the hurdles of life with God carrying you through.

1 Peter 5:7 - “casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.”

A rule is defined as, “one of a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a particular activity or sphere.”

In society, we have many rules. Most of these rules are made up by man. However, the most important rules are made up by God. Rules are established for our own good. If we had no rules, there would be chaos. God established His rules with 100% certainty that His way is the best way.

But what happens when we break a rule created by man? If we’re caught, we get punished. What about when we break one of God’s rules? Unfortunately, we also get punished. Some may look at this as not fair. But in reality rules are made up to protect us from harmful things, or things that would cause us to falter.

If you read the bible you’ll find several things that God hates. He hates pride. He hates a liar. He hates murder and those who deceive others. He hates gossip and He hates someone sowing discord among his brothers.

I have broken rules. One specifically was when I got caught speeding. You know the feeling. Looking in the rear view mirror. The horror of being pulled over and answering to a police officer as to why you were speeding. The lesson here is…..go by the rules and everything will be fine.

Get right with God. Know His rules and His commands and you won’t have anything to worry about.

Romans 13:1 - “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

We need to know the love of God and we need to have the fear of God.

Kids go through phases where they want everything they see. And as they grow up, they all of a sudden are saying, “I need this; I need that.”

In reality you may want a lot of things, but do you really need it?

In 2018, I made a year long commitment to not purchase any clothing for myself. And, I did it! It goes to show you how I have all the clothing I need in my closet. I didn’t need to buy anything and I wasn’t neglected or short of clothing.

How about God? Do you need Him? Do you look for God throughout your day? God wants us to desire Him; to really need Him to get us through our day.

Get to know God. Desire to have Him in your life. But also, respect who God is. God is not a jeanie that we make wishes to, on demand. We need God. We must have the fear, the reverence of God, in our lives to prosper.

Psalm 115:13 - “He will bless those who fear the Lord.”

Joy is both a promise and a command from God. Joy comes as we understand that God is in control. God reigns! And, because God reigns, we can rejoice.

I’m reminded of joy often when I watch my grandkids play - it blesses my heart to watch them laughing and thriving.

As a Christian, I choose to experience joy each day. I make it a point to find something or someone to smile about. God gives us a beautiful world to view and He gives us beautiful people to share life with.

Commit to see God’s beauty every day. Joy can be found in God and in His amazing creations.

Imagine what the world would be like if everyone sought out and found joy every day.

Joy is essential to the Christian life. Our joy is based on the goodness of God. Joy is also not optional in the Christian life, because the final weight falls on the almighty shoulders of God Himself.

Psalm 18:28 - “For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.”

Have you ever been selected from a group of people to be on a team or project?  Do you remember the feeling of importance and recognition? It’s an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.  You feel very special to be selected.

That same emotion can be found with God.  God chose me and I accepted His love for me.  My identity is in Christ alone.

He’s still choosing me each day to do His will.  I can rest in that.

What are you waiting on today?  To be Chosen? By whom?

God tells us to go, spread the word.  Go, don’t worry about how to do it or when.  God’s already made the plans.  God’s waiting on you.  If not you – He will choose someone else.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be on God’s team!

1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

I grew up the youngest of 8 kids and you can ask any of my siblings and they’ll tell you, ‘mom always knew best,’ in any situation.  By the time I came along, it became clear.  When mom said something or told me to do something, I should do it.  And, she did know best.  As long as we followed the rules and obeyed our parents, things went smoothly…… not!

There’s someone who knows best for EVERY situation, every trial, every decision, every path to take and every person to share life with.  God!

It’s hard to go through trials when we’re thinking, “this is the best path to take, or this is the right job to take, or I’ll just do this and our relationship will get better.” The problem with that is, we don’t know what’s best for us.  We think we do and we conjure up all these scenarios in our mind and when they don’t work out, we blame God.

I recently went through a season where I just knew this is how I wanted it to work out. I prayed and asked God to give me the desire of my heart.  Well, He came through, but not the way I wanted, but that’s okay.  His way actually turned out to be a whole lot better for me and my situation than I had originally wanted.

Quit trying to play God and think that your plans are better than God’s.  They never are.  He knew this would happen in this way before I was even a thought.

All I can say is, God is good, and His love for me is as deep as the deepest sea.  Let’s just say I’m feeling so blessed and loved right now.   

God knows best, always..

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a]for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Think about the above statement. If you are prayed up, confident of your identity in Christ, and sure of who is fighting your battles, fear doesn’t stand a chance of hanging around.

A lot of people will pray a prayer, asking Jesus to help them out of a situation, and then if the answer to that prayer doesn’t come, or is late in coming, they give up.  They stop praying.  Fear sets in.

Once you understand that fear, depression, even suicidal thoughts are all spiritual issues and you use this, along with the word of God, to stand against these evil forces, you are going to have success in your pursuit of wholeness.

It is inescapable that you will experience fear in your life; the question to ask is how to deal with it.
Have faith that God’s got this.  Once you put your trust in God, fear leaves.  Fear loses ground, it has no hold. 

When fear comes, and it will come, stand with God and watch Satan run.

James 4:7 – “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 

We depend on the sun to give us light each day, and the moon’s glow to give us light at night. We depend on food and water to keep us alive each day.  But there’s one source that gives us life, a resource available that is never ending. God.

By keeping our eyes on God as our source, we will find that we’ll never lack anything.  On the other hand, if we depend on people to meet our needs, and we place our dependence on people as our source, this opens the door for anger and disappointment.

Let’s not dismiss the fact that God uses other people to help meet our needs.  Let’s keep our expectations on God to avoid unnecessary frustration, disappointment and anger with people.

We need to help each other and bear one another’s burdens, and we need to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, but we can only be a resource of the one Source – God.

2 Kings 4:6-7: – “When the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.” And he said to her, “There is not one jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.  She came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go and sell the oil and pay what you owe. You and your sons can live on the rest.”