Description
For ordinary people who are destined to live extraordinary lives!
Each one of us is born with a God-ordained destiny, a carefully drawn out plan for our lives. Before the beginning of time God knew us and put in motion a supernatural plan for our lives. It is important that we understand how significant each life really is to God. The plan for our life is so unique that the place in which we were born, the era in which we live, even the profession we currently have are especially suited for the fulfillment of that destiny. We are so special that no one who has come before us or who will come after us could do the very things he has created us to accomplish. God has chosen the circumstances that make up our life because, if followed, they give us the shortest route in reaching our destiny.
There are so many men and women that I have met who feel the mistakes they have made or the unfair consequences of what others have done have somehow negated them from reaching the destiny and purpose that God originally intended for their lives. Because of what happened in the past, they feel they must now settle for second best and live with the disappointments that come with living a life of “what-ifs”.
* What if I had never said those things?
* What if I never made that mistake?
* What if I hadn’t crossed that line?
* What if I still had that job?
* What if that relationship hadn’t ended?
* What if I hadn’t allowed myself to be falsely accused?
* What if…
The road map we need to keep us on course or get us back on course is still available to us. If we do not realize that the journey to our destiny contains all of the successes and failures that we experience in life, we can easily find ourselves wandering aimlessly through life, constantly overwhelmed by a false sense of destiny—a destiny that makes us a slave to the circumstances of life. When that happens, we lose the strength to persevere so that we can stand victorious on the other side. There is someone who has not only gone on before us but who Jesus commissioned to help guide us through our times of testing. Luke 22:32, “And when you (speaking of Peter) have turned back (from your time of testing), strengthen your brothers.”
Perhaps that is why Peter’s life resonates so deeply within us, because in Peter we see ourselves. It is hard for us to find anyone in the Bible who has come to represent the universal man like Peter. When we look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in Peter’s life and what Jesus through the Holy Spirit made Peter into, each of us finds the hope that we also may run the race set before us and cross the finish line to hear the words of Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Peter’s life has come to reflect the transformative work of God, which can bring restoration and hope to the lives of every believer no matter what has happened in our lives.