Sometimes it’s astonishing how people exalt someone for their talent or ability. But do you know what is hidden within you, what lies dormant inside?

I often meet people who ask the same questions: Who am I? Why did God call me? How do I discover and step into my purpose? How does a person become a champion? What can bring out of me what God has prepared for me?

I keep saying this: everything is hidden by God within you. You need to become an expert and professional at understanding yourself and uncovering it.

The question isn’t about finding your purpose—it’s about awakening within yourself what God has placed there and discovering your function.

One day, I saw how a calm, polite man was turned into an angry monster in just one minute. A group of men started harassing his wife in a restaurant, and immediately, his true self emerged. The challenge thrown at him revealed that he was a strong individual.

God often uses the same principle—not to destroy you but, first, to show you and, second, to show everyone around you what’s hidden inside you.

Think about Job. Satan challenged him, convinced that Job would curse God. Instead, the trials Job endured brought out the victor within him.

Remember David and the challenge Goliath posed.
Joseph’s brothers believed they had erased him from the face of the earth, never imagining that their betrayal would elevate him to become second only to Pharaoh.

Hannah’s barrenness challenged her, turning her into a champion.
Esther, a quiet, unassuming girl, rose to the challenge and became a hero, willing to do whatever it took to save her people.

Understand this: it is the challenge thrown at you that will give you and me our names, functions, and purposes.

The secret isn’t just in the challenge but in what you do with it.

If you think about it, our entire lives depend on the challenges we face and how we respond to them.

Take David’s story with Zion. The Jebusites challenged him, mocking him by saying even the blind and lame could repel him:

(2 Samuel 5:6-10, NIV)
6 The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.”
7 Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David.
8 On that day, David had said, “Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those ‘lame and blind’ who are David’s enemies.” That is why they say, “The blind and lame will not enter the palace.”
9 David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward.
10 And he became more and more powerful because the Lord God Almighty was with him.

The Jebusites’ challenge was so significant that David, after his victory, named it the “City of David.” Their taunt brought the champion out of him.

A challenge will often expose our weaknesses or areas where breakthrough or growth is needed. The challenge thrown at you will either break you, as it does for most people, or turn you into a victor.

If it weren’t for the daily challenges people throw at me, I would never have achieved what I have or walked in what I walk in now. People constantly tell me, “You’re nobody,” “You’ll never succeed,” “We’ll do everything to stop you,” and so on. But I keep turning lemons into lemonade.

“Oh, I’m nobody? Then soon, I’ll become somebody! Oh, I’ll never succeed? Then something great is about to happen! Oh, I won’t make it there? That’s exactly where I’ll be!”

With time, I’ve realized that I’m shaped by my responses to the challenges thrown at me.

Personally, I enjoy it when someone tells me I can’t do or achieve something. That’s when something within me awakens, something that was dormant before.

Challenges, whether they come from someone or something, push you out of your comfort zone and make you reflect on why they were thrown your way.

Never be afraid of challenges. Instead, thank God for allowing situations in your life that awaken in you what will likely surprise even you.

We all need challenges in life. If you haven’t learned to embrace them, you’ll never move forward or become a champion.

Oh, how we dislike challenges, but how desperately we need them! They compel us to live and give us our names and legacies.

May our Heavenly Father bless you.