My grandson fully dressed in cap and gown proudly walked across the stage to receive his diploma. He was now officially graduated from pre-school. As he received his diploma he was asked one question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Without hesitation he clearly stated, “A prophet.” The audience applauded his choice and he joined the rest of his fellow graduates, who had aspirations of being firemen, horseback riders, rock stars, mommies, and policemen.
A couple days later I asked Samuel why he wanted to be a prophet? Without any hesitation he said. “The Bible says I am going to be a prophet.” Later in the week Samuel told his mother that her name in the Bible was Hannah and that his dad’s name was Eli. I realized immediately just how much the Bible story of Samuel had influenced his thinking and his idea of what his destiny was going to be.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could go to the Bible and find our names and a list of what is expected of us in the future. Our names would be the foundation we would build on from the moment we could understand what we were suppose to be in life. There would be no more guessing when we arrived at our senior year in high school as to where we would go to college or even who we would marry. Everything would already be laid out and the door would be waiting for us to open it into our predestined future.
Unfortunately this is not how this world works. We don’t know our futures and as a result we often stumble as we open and shut doors along our journey. We make wrong choices in work and the people we marry. Even when we have a plan and our future all laid out perfectly, something comes along and veers us away from our path. Things we can’t plan on, like a sudden death in the family where you become responsible to take over the family business. Or, heaven forbid, you become sick and must go through life or death treatments that may or may not work.
In fact, our world has been set up so we won’t know our future. We are destined to be challenged in every aspect of life because we have a purpose that goes beyond this world. We are being prepared through what we go through in this world to reign as brothers with Jesus. The only way we can attain God’s goal for our lives is by being tested through a corrupt and fallen world. A world ruled by Satan. A world where we will be tested to our very ability to endure.
Isaiah 6: 8-10, “Then I heard the Lord say, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?’ I answered, ‘I Will go! Send me!’
So he told me to go and give the people this message: ‘No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening.’ Then he said to me, ‘Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed.’”
Everyone is destined to walk this world without the benefit of knowing their futures ahead of time. Why does God do this? Because we are here to achieve goals that can only be attained when we interact with each other in an imperfect world. When we live in an imperfect world then we can make mistakes. Mistakes that teach us the difference between right and wrong. Mistakes that allow us to understand things we would not have understood without going down a wrong path.
This is the reason why we are blind to our actions until we are in the midst of a wrong path. This is the reason why we are unable to hear the message of God until the right time comes for us to come to Him. God has a plan to teach us to know Him for our benefit at a particular time in our life.
Isaiah 6: 11
About the author of this article:
linda c dipman author of the game of life it’s almost over http://outskirtspress.com/gameoflife presents and his love shone down, my true life story! it describes all the persecutions i endured. it will put you on the edge of your seat as you read each vivid detail. you will feel terror and experience love like nothing you have ever read before. lovinghandsministry.com
