We are who we are because we are meant to be where we are. We are sometimes where we are to take us to where we are supposed to be. We also get into a particular situation as a pathway to where we are destined to be. Experiences we go through in life are meant to be springboards to our destinations, whether good or bad. We often live in despair because we have not achieved our set targets or put a comparison between ourselves and others. When we see ourselves lagging behind others or not fulfilling our dreams we may even go as far as thinking we are cursed, yet we are where we are because that is exactly where we are meant to be at that period of our lives. Everything is predetermined by the Lord our God. There are reasons why we are who we are and where we are.
BY PROSPER TINGINI:sundayword
Let me give real life examples to illustrate why certain things happen to us in ways we may not fully understand at first. In one example, there is this very hardworking gentleman who has a good job in a very successful local company. Five years ago this same gentleman thought he was not getting the recognition he deserved and that some of his peers were progressing much better in life than him. He started hunting for another job and in the process got an interview invite for a prestigious position in a big foreign company, in the American city of New York. Being a well-educated person, he started seeing himself achieving all his dreams. He broke the news of the invitation letter for the job interview to his church pastor and to the whole congregation so that they could all pray for him to secure the job — which they did.
The ambitious gentleman indeed passed the first interview and the second. After the final selection, he was very saddened to be told someone else had got the job. He was heartbroken and could not understand why despite his high qualifications, good interview and prayers to the Lord he still failed to land the job.
In shame he even stopped going to his local church. He took a month-long leave from his workplace to digest the pain on his own. Even the relationship with his wife suffered because he had been so intent on getting the job.
Six months later, after this gentleman had rediscovered that life still goes on after whatever setback, he learnt that the foreign company which had not given him the job had gone broke. It had filed for bankruptcy and was now in liquidation. He started to reflect on the horrors he would then have endured had he got the “dream job”. Not only would he have been jobless in a foreign country at that very time, but he would have sold most of his property back home. On that very day he went back to his church and the pastor and narrated the story. He again asked them all to pray to the Lord to thank God for having shut the door to the American job, as not only that, but also that the local company he was working for had promoted him to be CEO, after the retirement of the incumbent. God had shut the door to the “American dream” so that he could be the CEO of his homeland company which he has now steered to much greater heights today. He is now living beyond his dreams and knows now that our destinations are predetermined by the Lord.
We may live in despair for not achieving our own set targets, attached to our own set time limits. Life is about patience and endurance. Calamities of all sorts do always occur in our daily lives, which can bring anguish to people. Depression can set in if we fail to understand that God sometimes shuts certain doors so that he can open others which can then bring the answers to some of our hopes. Many of us get discouraged when our prayers seem not to be answered or when something is not happening fast enough. Learn to accept God’s answers even though they are not what we want. He knows when to shut or open the doors. He knows what he is doing to enable to get us to our intended destinations.
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to that nations,” said the Lord to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5-6). Thus we have a proof that God has a predetermined plan for each of us before we are born. God also appeared to Joseph and spoke; “Joseph, son of David, do not fear, take Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:18-23). Joseph was secretly conspiring to divorce Mary, for she was pregnant with God’s child, Jesus, before they “come together”. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emman’uel”.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
In our romantic relationships we are also sometimes faced with tough Joseph-Mary situations that may indeed break our hearts. There could be reasons why we are sometimes heartbroken by the same perceived actions of our partners or spouses. Maybe because of the betrayal by a loved one, the Lord meant to tell you that he/she was not meant for you and that maybe a better person is/was waiting for you out there. Let go of the things that did not go your way. Let God’s will be done. His ways are bigger and better and he can take you further than you ever imagined.
Again to illustrate the issue of heartbreaks each of us knows of someone who has had a broken heart. In fact, the majority of us did not marry the first person we dated neither are most of us still hanging out with our first love. Things happened that shut some paths and opened new ones. I know of a story were a boy and a girl who lived in the same neighbourhood, whose parents were friends, went to the same schools, attended the same church etc, fell in love at a tender age and everybody expected them to marry. They both graduated from university and both found good jobs. As fate would have it, the male partner died on the day he was supposed to pay the bride price. The female partner took some poison in an attempt to commit suicide and was only saved by the intervention of medical hospital staff. She is now happily married to a very loving and high-ranking government official. It was a predetermined destiny.
l Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly – God’s messengers. Contact details: 0771 260 195. Email address: [email protected]
