ENTERING THE NEW YEAR

Well hello there dear gist partner. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! 

Welcome to 2026! 

How’s the year looking for you? 

Welcome to today’s gist. 

So, a new year has begun and we’re probably all in, or have just concluded, the process of taking stock of the year before and charting the course for the new year –drawing your vision board, listing your prayer points, mapping out an action plan… very good strategy! I certainly recommend that we all take the time to plan for this new year. And as we begin the new year, there is something I want to bring to your notice. 

As I was drawing the curtains close on 2025 and thinking to the new year, I read something in Matthew 13 and I thought to share. Verses 31 and 32 say: “He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”” (ESV) 

Have you ever seen a mustard seed before? They’re really tiny, some of the smallest seeds you’ll ever see. Yet when it grows, it becomes one of the biggest trees and the Bible says that birds come to make their nests in it. So from that minuscule seed, a gigantic tree emerges.  Looking at the smallness of a mustard seed, it would not be out of place to imagine that it will only ever amount to a small plant or a little shrub; yet this seed, unlimited by its initial smallness, increases and develops into a large tree one that is capable of providing shelter to various birds. 

When I read that portion of Scripture,the Lord told me: you can no longer make the excuse that you started with little in this new year. It is not about how little you had to start with but what you did with the said little that you had. You must be willing to put this little to work and produce something great from the little you have, no more excuses! 

Too many times we’re so focused on how little what we have is and how much more we need to be able to actually produce greatness so we make excuses and rely so heavily on these excuses that we end up doing absolutely nothing with what is in our hands. I am not denying the fact that what you have might actually be little, it is a notorious fact that this life no balance and some people are actually at the advantage of having access to more resources, or any kind, than others and you may very well be part of those who have less to begin with. But my question is: wetin you don use the small one wey you get do? Until you stop making excuses, you’ll never be motivated to do any real thing. 

So this year, save that 200 Naira, take that picture with your phone like that, start that plan even if it looks like it’ll only survive for 2 days. Don’t be quick to make excuses for why you can’t do anything, do it the best way you can with what you have available to you. 

And you know why you have to stop making excuses and start? Because that’ sere are people who will come under your care, people whose welfare is tied to your growing enough to be able to provide them with help. Imagine if the mustard seed refuses to grow, will those birds have found a place to rest? And that’s how it is; there are people for whose sake you must grow! 

So, in 2026: NO EXCUSES! 

May God help us to be willing to do what we need to do and not to entertain excuses. 

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: our song recommendation is the hymn ‘Take my life and let it be’. As the year is starting, it’s a good time to renew your commitment to God, to remind yourself that you are consecrated to God. But if you’re here and you haven’t received Jesus into your heart, that’s the first and most important thing to do this year and you can receive Jesus into your heart: simply come to Him in sincerity, confess your sins to Him, tell Him that you believe in Him and in His power to save you, ask Him into your heart and pledge to live life going forward with Him fully involved and according to His terms.  I pray that this song blesses your heart and draws you to commit again to God. 

Audiomack: https://audiomack.com/integrity-music/song/take-my-life-and-let-it-be?share-user-id=140072136 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2Vs1GjJVDAAHUqQz86cU9c?si=2RCmsiQ4TMqEUHFitznHvQ 

YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=TpwrBz2uX_I&si=qK02Gj6YxbXPRzI3 

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you next week. And I hope you have a blissful sail with God through 2026. 

Love,

Achenyo.