{"id":1095,"date":"2012-03-05T19:07:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T00:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2012-03-03T11:10:40","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T16:10:40","slug":"finding-your-destiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/03\/finding-your-destiny.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding Your Destiny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I believe that God has a purpose for each of us.\u00a0 There is no child born without a God-given plan for his\/her life.\u00a0 It is our responsibility to learn what that purpose is and pursue it with all our heart.<\/p>\n<p>God&#8217;s word tells us in Jermiah 29:11-13,(&#8230;..I know what I am planning for you,&#8221; says the Lord\u00a0 &#8220;I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.\u00a0 Then you will call My name. You will come to Me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You will search for Me, and when you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me.\u00a0 I will let you find Me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>God has had a plan for each of us long before we were born.\u00a0 However, we may never find our purpose if we make poor choices along the way or refuse to do what God\u00a0tells us to do.\u00a0 He uses every situation in our lives to build on that purpose.\u00a0 Some of the most difficult experiences we face will mold us into being effective in our purpose.<\/p>\n<p>God has chosen the parents to which we will be born, and they are not all good, godly people.\u00a0 I was raised in an alcoholic home.\u00a0 My father had no use for church or God, except to curse Him.\u00a0 I was molested as a child, by my brother&#8217;s friends, but I know that God was there with me through it all.\u00a0 Now I can honestly understand and minister to people who have had the same experience.\u00a0 I can\u00a0have compassion for the children that I know face the same terrible things.<\/p>\n<p>We all face situations and circumstances that are not pleasant.\u00a0 We choose to make them work for us or allow them to distroy us.\u00a0 What the enemy meant to bring me death and despair, God has used to bring me hope and life.\u00a0 God is so good.<\/p>\n<p>So how can we find our purpose in Him?\u00a0 How can we know what our destiny is?\u00a0 Tomorrow we will look at some ways we can do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I believe that God has a purpose for each of us.\u00a0 There is no child born without a God-given plan for his\/her life.\u00a0 It is our responsibility to learn what that purpose is and pursue it with all our heart. God&#8217;s word tells us in Jermiah 29:11-13,(&#8230;..I know what I am planning for you,&#8221; says&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[42,19,41],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","tag-choices","tag-faith","tag-ministry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Finding Your Destiny - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/03\/finding-your-destiny.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finding Your Destiny - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I believe that God has a purpose for each of us.\u00a0 There is no child born without a God-given plan for his\/her life.\u00a0 It is our responsibility to learn what that purpose is and pursue it with all our heart. God&#8217;s word tells us in Jermiah 29:11-13,(&#8230;..I know what I am planning for you,&#8221; says&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/03\/finding-your-destiny.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-06T00:07:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-03T16:10:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Finding Your Destiny - Small Town America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/03\/finding-your-destiny.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Finding Your Destiny - Small Town America","og_description":"I believe that God has a purpose for each of us.\u00a0 There is no child born without a God-given plan for his\/her life.\u00a0 It is our responsibility to learn what that purpose is and pursue it with all our heart. 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