Faith Unshakable

Gen 50:20 Joseph replies to his brothers who sold him into slavery because of their utter hatred for him  "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

How can you know what God has ordained for your life? Before we answer this question I'd like you to realize that if you can answer the above question with confidence by grace you have been given an unshakable faith which will ultimately lead to abundant peace. Due to how important this question is to our faith, allow me to break down the ways in which we can answer it.
We are not omnipresent like God so we must tackle the three sections of the question past,present, and future separately.

Past: I know whatever has happened in my life was ordained by God because it happened and thus God had a plan in it.

Present: I know God has brought me to this current place and he did so for a reason.
Future: I have a firm conviction that God is using all of my past and present circumstances to mold and shape me into his image. Even my evil nature cannot separate me from God's perfect plan.
Now let's understand why these three replies can be challenging.

It is no secret my childhood was a painful experience. I have fought depression, family crisis, and addiction to drugs, but the single most overwhelming weight I have carried is a deep understanding of just how broken this world is. When I research history, I see a human race that is littered with agony. When I look out into the world, I see millions of people born into suffering.

Imagine a happy family sitting around the dining room table having a jolly good time. All seems well in this moment but the truth is one of these family members will live to see all the others die.
That happy family will presently experience the guarantee of certain death and even their moment of joy around the dining room table will be taken from them as its memory will only deepen their sense sadness at this cold fact.

Yet through all the pain and suffering there was a man named Paul who wrote from prison close to his death the following passage
Philippians 4:11-13 "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Paul also writes in Romans 8:28-30 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified"

Paul uses the past tense when describing glorification because he realizes that our glorification is not an abstract future accomplishment, rather, we have virtually been glorified even in this moment.

God's will for us is exactly what we would choose for ourselves if we only had infinite wisdom. I want to leave you, my reader, with this hope. 

There are no mistakes in God's economy. Take heart, my dear readers, God has a plan and his plan will soon become our reality.

The Meaning of Life is_______?

Happiness equals reality minus expectations
Ah but joy equals reality plus expectations.
When all around reality offers nothing but pain we must realize in Christ we have nothing but gain.

You see brothers and sisters although reality is tough we know if God does anything He does it for a reason, and oh how God loves us in Christ Jesus, but yet there are no mistakes in God's systematic way of operation.

This can mean but one thing and it's beautiful. Reality is really plus our wildest dreams or expectations. God must be so worth this painful process.

John 16.33 Jesus who is God is quoted saying
"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Identity

My dear readers, I know I have not written in a few months. Unfortunately, time is scarce for me so without wasting time allow me to dive right into tonight’s point. Identity in the dictionary is defined as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is”. Identity is our very core being--what we truly live for and what makes up our very being. Why we choose to live could be summed up as our identity. Here is the problem: deeply rooted there is a pain in all of us. Something is amiss. The realization of certain death hangs over us as a dark cloud. But why we live tortures our reasoning souls. Ladies and gentlemen you do not have to believe in God to believe in the curse.
Leo Tolstoy, when he was an atheist, wrote the following:

"What's the point? We all get up in the morning, go to bed in the evening, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, and work, day after day after day, but . . . What's it all about? Why? Where is this all leading? "Imagine a happy group of morons who are engaged in work. They are carrying bricks in an open field. As soon as they have stacked all the bricks at one end of the field, they proceed to transport them to the opposite end. This continues without stop and every day of every year they are busy doing the same thing. One day one of the morons stops long enough to ask himself what he is doing. He wonders what purpose there is in carrying the bricks. And from that instant on he is not quite as content with his occupation as he had been before. I am the moron who wonders why he is carrying the bricks." Do you see it, my friends? “If your origin is insignificant and your destination is insignificant have the guts to admit your life is insignificant” In Psalms 37:4 we read “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Due to our identity being defined as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is,” I’d like to challenge my readers to push their imagination deeper into this verse. Is it possible that God is saying that the desire of our heart is our god? And that only if the desire of our heart is in the Lord will we ever have meaning or purpose? Is it possible that when we read “Delight yourself in the LORD” that He himself will become the desire of your heart? Readers, I am of the firm belief that when we place our purpose for life in any other source than God himself, then the thing we place our identity in will kill us. This is so dangerously deceptive because I am here to tell you that you can place your identity in doing God’s work which is not God himself and thus deadly.