A very close friend lost her dad recently and more often these days I hear and read about too many death stories, one would wonder if rapture is slowly taking place. Excuse my gloomy thoughts and I beg that you indulge my wandering mind in today’s post.
There are many questions we try hard to find answers to. Things we just can’t wrap our heads around. We are sometimes faced with whys and caught in the web of what truly is or is not God’s will for us. When faced with challenges in our lives like the death of a loved one or a long time illness, we wonder if things are predestined to be that way and sometimes we resign ourselves to fate.
This brings me to one question that has always bugged my mind and that is: Does Destiny truly exist? Are we put in this world as puppets with the puppeteer just pulling the strings? Deciding who stays, who goes or who excels? The Bible says in the book of Romans 9 that the Lord will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy on. Does this mean we are powerless in the exercise of our wills as humans? Does this mean we have an unfair God?
One would naturally ask, if Destiny truly does exist, what then is the use of hardwork? Why should we pray about things that are bound to happen? Should we leave all our lives to the dictate of nature and resign to whatever state we find ourselves and like anyone without Christ say, ‘it is destiny?’
In my quest to find answers to all these questions, I stumbled on some very interesting passages of the bible. One of which is in the book of Isaiah, the story of king Hezekiah to be precise. For those that are not familiar with the story, I’d just run through. Hezekiah was sick and prophet Isaiah told him that he was going to die (this to me reads like what some of us call destiny), what is interesting about this story is the fact that Hezekiah got on his knees and called out his righteousness before God, this led to his life being lengthened by fifteen more years.
Destiny is that belief that a chain of events is bound to happen no matter the circumstances. In my little mind, I imagine destiny is man’s lazy way of resigning to whatever life throws in his laps because the sooner we understand we have been created with the power to tell right from wrong, the earlier we would be able to break free of the believe that some are born lucky and some are not. Allow me say a belief in destiny, is an inhibition on the exercise of faith and belief in the power of prayers.
As a Christian, I am of the belief that while God has a universal plan for the way things should play out, he has also given us the willpower to tell right from wrong, which is all part of his grand master plan. So,we would be held accountable for the choices we make. "Each person was judged according to what he had done." Rev 20:3. Solomon also said in the book of Proverbs “In all hardwork, there is a profit but mere talk tends only to poverty.” Prov 22:8.
I must admit that there are some things I seek clarity on but like my sister once said “the Bible is a mystery that is not to be analysed but for one to allow the Holy Spirit be one’s guide while reading it. To the best of my understanding as at the writing of this post, I don’t believe there is destiny, I believe we are the creator of whatever becomes our destiny. However I believe there is grace and only God knows the criteria for the qualification of grace. Always remember during the low times that God's plan for us is always good.
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