Let me start by wishing you all a happy new year!!!

If you’re reading this blog then there’s definitely a reason to be grateful cause you’re alive.

My last post was about getting ready. This post should come before the last one because Set comes before ready in a normal race… right?

Either way if you’ve read the previous post and are now reading Set that is fine. If you want to read Get Ready again feel free to 🤗 If you have not read Get Ready you are still fine so that means you’re heading there next!!!

I was just reflecting on the year that had gone by and just wanted to share a few points with you.

So I was trying to avoid the whole “new year new me” cliche at the beginning of 2017.

Firstly, I was celebrating it in a new location and I just wanted to do something different so I adopted the “whatever happens” mentality.

At the time it felt like the best thing. It was cool. So I didn’t set any goals- not that I didn’t know what I wanted to achieve but it was more in my head. It was like ‘make them as you go along’ goals

Well looking back on that now that was not the best decision and I am sure many will agree. So this time around I told God what I wanted.

Goals help to Guide us, give us clear Orientation, act as an Anchor when things become unstable, shed Light when things become dark and Sustain us when we become weary and want to give up.

There is also a thing about giving God the first of anything- your time, your finances-anything. I usually and for as long as I remember had spent crossing over into the new year in church. Though at the beginning of 2017 I went to watch fireworks at the London Eye and went to the Park to eat and chill.

It was a fun, long and disappointing night. Fun because the disappointment was shared with my friends so we had something to laugh about.

But in the end it would have been worth it spending that time in the presence of God.

Giving God the first hours or minutes of the new year or spending your offerings first in the house of God makes a lot of difference. This is something I experienced in years past that seemed lacking in the last year. Although I never lacked anything because God still provided. But there is just an unexpected covering when you put God first.

In fact the whole year God was second in line to having fun. Unknowingly I had made a decision that having fun and living life to the fullest came first and that was the trend of the year.

So I’m asking you when you set goals what are your real intentions? What does it reveal about your mentality??

God is merciful and I still learnt a lot through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. But the biggest lesson learnt from 2017 and which I am carrying into 2018 is putting God first and having a relationship with him.

I shared this revelation with a colleague of mine: a relationship with God is like going to the gym. It’s not something we do just because we are trying to fit into that ball gown but it has to be consistent if we are to remain in shape, be sharp and live long and healthy.

This illuminates Paul’s words:

1 Timothy 4:8

For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

A friend of mine also recommended a book to me: TO KNOW HIM by Billy Humphrey. In summary, sometimes we think we know God To the extent that we could take our relationship with him for granted but none of us can truly comprehend him because he chooses to reveal himself in different ways. Therefore we need to constantly seek fellowship with Him so that we don’t get cut off guard when God decides to do something new.

A lot of people have already started proclaiming the scripture Isaiah 43:19:

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness.

In truth there are still many that lack the sensitivity to see or perceive what God is planning…

If we really want to know what God plans to do in and through us we need to go deep with him. We need to put Him first and we need to be focused (eyes on the goal)

We (I included) need to move on from getting set or getting ready to GO!!!!! This year we will fulfil all that God has purposed for us and we will be victorious!!!

SHALOM