2021: The new year is here and I am so grateful that I made it through 2020. No matter what came my way, 2020 is in the past; and I can look forward with an expectant heart to a new year and new beginnings. 2020 was quite a year but one in which I experienced amazing growth in my personal life. I learnt the power of solitude and the fortitude of silence. I met and knew myself better and what makes me glad and would encourage all of us to take time to meet ourselves. To get away from all the noise, distractions, gadgets and conversations and just sit still in the silence. Listening to the still small voice in our soul, allowing the emotions to flow through uninhibited and loving ourselves for who we are.

The new year has begun well and with powerful lessons. As I gain clarity on what my mission for this year is, I spend time sitting in the presence of God and aligning my desires to His will. The first devotion was from the book of John 1. An outline of the oneness of God and Christ and how through Christ we are all made. Verses 11-13 in particular caught my attention. Talking of Christ, John 1:11-13 “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” This spoke to me very powerfully. All my life I have known myself as a daughter of my parents and have this family I call mine: with various characteristics both good and bad, various looks and a whole host of things that have been passed down the generations. My children too belong to both my family and that of their father: with a blend of characteristics from both lineages. We identify with our lineage and this sets the ground for how we play our game of life to a large extent. It is usual to say I have this illness because it runs in the family and for all my life, I did not see anything wrong with that.

This morning I realize that I belong to another family. A family not defined by man or his will. A family with nothing but perfection in its lineage. The family of God. I am a daughter of the King. I am here not by the will of my earthly parents but by God’s divine purpose for me. I cannot therefore identify with those earthly characteristics that run in our earthly family any more. I am more than that. In my new lineage, curses and infirmity do not pass down the generations. In Christ I am a new creation: the old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). I therefore cannot be bound by my past, my mistakes, failures or misgivings. I am new and I begin living again now. I look forward and the past is behind me, no longer having a hold of me.

In this new family we have in us the love and power of Christ. In John 14:12 Christ said that if we believe in Him, we will do what He did and even greater things. I therefore have within me the power to create. What will I use this new power to do? Definitely not to harm others but to bring them good because we will have within us the mind of Christ who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage (Philippians 2:6). We will instead use it for the good of all mankind. We will go out and be kind, loving and generous. As we give, it will definitely come back to us: good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38). Let us therefore put out what we want to receive.

 What is it that we struggled with in 2020 and the years behind us? What is it that we did not make to achieve, or habit we were unable to break and we blamed it on our genes? What was said about us and our lineage? Was it ever said that we cannot amount to much because of the family we come from? Are there things we were told we cannot do well because in our family that just doesn’t work? Well, not any more. It is time to embrace the gift of newness found in Christ and with it a new lineage. In this new life, we open our lives up to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20). . It may call for us to let go of some traditions and heirlooms that we identified with.

With this understanding, I know in 2021 I will live an amazing life and be formidable woman doing great things in God’s kingdom. What do we expect of our new year? Do we have dreams that we gave up on because of the lineage we come from? Are there dreams we killed in our children telling them how in our family ‘we are not gifted in that?” Letting go of what is behind us, we forge on and embrace all the great dreams and opportunities that lie before us. It is time to arise and shine and go forth in the confidence of who we are in Christ

Here’s to a great 2021 and beyond!