It’s a new dawn! A new month! A new year and a new season. Happy New Year and welcome on board to the year 2019, fasten your safety belt and be ready for the flight. It is by God’s grace that we have seen this New Year, many waited with great expectations, with well laid down strategy and plan of actions…some though didn’t get to see the light of the day and they found their rest with their ancestors. We are therefore the remnants of the day ( for that we thank God) and if there is anything God has planned to do this year and this season, then it’s for us to rise up and be involved in what the Lord is doing around us and within us.
Well, I have heard many say that this year brings nothing new just a change in the calendar…. Well that’s true and false depending on how you look at it. True if you if you expect no change at all or do nothing about the change you expect or even wish to see and false if you have a firm believe that God is working with you, in you and around you to make the world a better place. It is a season to begin a fresh with renewed energy and revised goals, a time to remind oneself and hold on to the promises of God and see if the Lord will not turn around your life. Could be some bad habits you have always wanted to abandon but you still find yourself falling back to square one? Probably there’s a way you have desired to be but you always post phone action time? May be you have always desired to pray more, give more, care more, smile more, give thanks more and be a little bit more positive? But has it come to a point where you have said enough is enough? Well, you have a chance to make it happen this time round, change bad habits and acquire new ones…..probably it’s something small like being there for other people, being more understanding and a little bit patient with others…even that small thing, the Lord can make it happen this year irrespective of how many times you have failed before.
In Genesis 27:40, we come across Esau, son of Isaac, although Isaac had intended to bless Esau, the plan was overturned and Jacob and his mother pulled a scam and impersonated Esau and Jacob was blessed instead. Esau cries to his father with hope to gain some blessing, any blessing … but Isaac has nothing to offer, everything is gone. In verse 40, Isaac tells Esau, “You will live by the sword, and you will serve your brother, BUT WHEN YOU GROW RESTLESS you will throw his yoke off your neck. Well, this is what am trying to say, it will take someone getting restless over some habits and breaking off the yoke. Do not just sit and let days pass, make each day count. Plan to be a better person, a better employee or employer, a better business person, a better pastor, a better mother, a better father…whatever it is that you do, just work to be better. It is another opportunity to get things right, another chance to try out something new, you can’t just sit and expect things to happen, you will have to do something, of course the right thing to do. Even though God provided manna to the Israelites in the wilderness, they had to physically go and collect it from the field.
It is another opportunity to trust on the providence of God. He knows what is good for you and the season that fits you. He is not a man to be bribed, but he is our Lord. In times of lack, call him your provider, in sickness, he will be your healer, when you are lost, remember he is the way, truth and life, when your energy is fading, hold on to him for he is able to renew your energy, when you are tempted and succumb to sin, do not dwell there, rise us, dust your coat and let him cleanse you of your iniquities and restore you back to your position as heir in His kingdom.
Remember Ecclesiastes 9:11 “ I returned and saw under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happens to them all. This year, do not promise yourself anything from your own strength and wisdom, neither should you pride in your ability to do something. Whereas we expect the swift to win the race, it may not always be so…something can come and they may fall or even get hurt and miss the opportunity. The strong may not always win the battle as at times they may pride on their own ability and gifts (like the case of Goliath and David), while a weaker opponent trusting upon God’s grace may fight against powers and come out conquerors. Skill and knowledge though very good and admirable may not always win you favor which you highly qualify for. But because God is God, both swift and slow, Strong and weak, wise and foolish, rich and poor, the skilled and the unskilled, time and chance happens to all of them. In his divinity, he provides to each according to his divine plan each on his own time and season. Therefore, what you may think it’s a chance or fate is a decree from God in your season.
Therefore friends, in this year 2019, choose to appreciate Gods providence in your life and never take anything for granted. Don’t think it is by luck that you achieve, know that this has taken careful planning and execution in the heavenly realms for the same to be manifested in the world you see. With that in mind, 2019 can only be better.
My prayer for you is that God will locate you with eyes of favor, your prayers, cries and supplications will reach the heavens and the angels will not rest until your case is sorted. I pray that you will find favor before men and before God and that you will be more positive and impact people around you positively this year. May heaven and the blood of the lamb defend you where your words can’t. May you experience growth in all aspects of your life. May you have wonderful encounters with the Lord. In every mountain that comes your way, my prayer is the Lord will level them for you or better still give you the grace and the strength to overcome. May the Lord put a new song of praise and thanks giving in your mouth.
Happy 2019.
Be Positive
