What determines your Fate? ...

Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Good morning. How are you doing? What is determining your fate? What is it that is guiding things? Can we interpret the events and history of our country, our state, our family, ourselves?

There is the business of history books. Many try to find the reason for the strength of the West, or the rise of China, or the well-being of Germany, or the success of the US in the past 200 years. Economic scientists try to formulate the rules of economy which make a country flourish. What about your personal development?

Personal Development …

There is a lot of advice what you have to do to flourish personally. Some tell you you have to be brave and creative. Some tell you to invest in a particular way into the stock market. You will find some correlation between education and income. You will also find a correlation between health and income. Is one the reason of the other? Or do both come from another source? What is the role of your personal ethics in your development?

The bible tells us not to forget the main driving force of the universe. It tells us to think about God, the creator, the maintainer, the Lord. It links our fate with our relationship to the eternal Lord. In proverbs, we read:

19 Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, 20 for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out. 21 My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, 22 for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both? (Proverbs 24, 21-22)

According to these verses our personal ethics has a crucial influence on our fate. Doing good will make us last. Doing bad will make us vanish. There is no future in evil. There is desaster in evil.

Experiences …

It is very tricky to judge fate. Perhaps you feel ill or neglected. Perhaps you are down, since your life does not seem to work. Yes, it is a good question what you can change and what you can do. I think that God tells us to first look at him, at his words, his character, his love, his goals, his purpose for us. My own personal experience is that the biblical words are reality, God is there, and when we address him, many things will happen over time.

The fear of the Lord means that we realize that he is the cause and the goal of creation. He is the all-powerful Lord. He is holy. He is trustworthy. His word stands. And our life will be compared to him as the standard.

Both testaments, the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, claim, that our life does not match the standard. There is no one who would not have failed. We all have gone into the wrong direction, have travelled the wrong path. Only in the universial forgiveness of Christ Jesus we are reconciled, forgiven. Only in Jesus there is peace. But there IS peace in Jesus, and in and through him we can live with God.

Can we experience that those who fear and love the Lord will survive? Can we experience the truth of the above lines of proverbs, spoken about 2800 years ago? I believe that we can. Justice helps to keep a country running. People who are sensitive to one another, and who obey the laws, will lead to a growing economy and to personal progress with respect to all layers of life. And for yourself as a person, who hopes and struggles and looses and wins, you can experience his companionship as well, when you ask him to be there and take the lead! Connect to him, he is a continuing source of joy and peace. (Roland Potthast)