I sincerely welcome you all to the long-awaited year 2025. Let us thank God for our lives, look at our past and plan for the future. As old-age gives birth to new-age, so your today will give birth to tomorrow. Proverb says, “Where there is no vision the people perish”.

If you fail to plan, then you have planned to fail.  We wash our cooking pots today because of tomorrow’s food. “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecc 3:1.  At a time like this, most of us overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we ought to do in our lifetime.

Often times, when we make our New Year resolutions, we think about its financial implications and ignore other aspects. As Christians, let us have a rethink and put God first in our plan for this year, 2025. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” Mt 6:33.

We should learn from our mistakes and our successes. Let us appreciate what we have before we think of what we lack, to enable us be in the right direction. God has not finished with us. “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me” Ps 138:8.  Roger Babson said, “If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it”. If you are a Christian, let your words and actions portray you as one.

Remi was a young humble and gentle cobbler: So we thought but he came up with a plan to marry, build a house and buy a porch car same year. Well, he succeeded in marrying a wife and built a house to the joy of every Dick and Harry. While his relations and friends were looking forward to his buying a Jeep as he boasted he would, he was arrested for allegedly killing and selling the body parts of an Okada-man. It was only then that people got to know the source of his sudden riches.

Plan with God who has a plan for you!  He created you for a purpose; hence you have to work towards the fulfillment of that purpose. “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and hope” Jer 29:11.

Moses escaped from Egypt and planned to live as a sojourner in a foreign land. But God’s plan for him was to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” Moses was asking God in Ex. 3:11. And God told him, “But I will be with you” Ex. 3:12. David the shepherd boy was happy shepherding his flock and must have planned how he would grow and kill all the lions disturbing his sheep. But unknown to him, he was to be king to shepherd his people.  And when it happened as planned by God, David accepted God’s will for him and did his best to lead his people.

Joseph and Mary planned to marry and have children. When they got to know God’s plan for them regarding his only Begotten Son, they embraced it humbly and faithfully. Mary said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” Lk 1:38.  God’s way may not seem easy but “This God, his way is perfect; the promise  of the Lord  proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him” 2 Sam 22.31. When you ask the Lord to give you understanding, you will be able to plan well (along his will for you). The Psalmist says in 119.34, “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.”

Some received more blessings than they expected in 2024 while others got less, but I encourage you all to thank God for preserving our lives: Not all those who started 2024 ended it. Isaiah 38:18-19 says, “The dead cannot praise you; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day”. 

 If Jesus himself resigned to the Father’s will for him, why do men plan to operate outside God’s will? In Mk 14:36 Jesus said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what you will.” God knows the best for us and will not give us what will harm us. So, bend your will or plan to correspond with that of God for you. Let God be at the center of your life. Happy New Year! 08033558479.