Build your 2026 on GOD’s COVENANT

Hi Friends,✍🏽

It’s February 2nd! Can you imagine that an entire month of the year has eluded us? Some jestingly say that January is actually the trial month, and the year really begins in February. 🤔

Some of us may have created vision boards, written down goals and plans, fasted and prayed unto the Lord, and so much more in anticipation of a “new beginning” or a “fresh start.” 🙌🏽

In Psychology, there is a concept called the “Fresh Start Effect” (Dai et al., 2014), which essentially says: “People are more likely to engage in aspirational behaviours following temporal landmarks, such as the beginning of new calendar cycles (the start of a new week, month, year etc.).”

The fresh start effect can trigger an adrenaline rush and before you know it, just as an energy drink pumps you up at the beginning, you eventually crash down. And right about now, some of us may feel that guilt creeping in as we started off with bursting energy in January as the year kicked off and are now somewhere in the in-between, trying to figure out what went wrong. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand”. 

You see, the problem is that we are fuelling our ambitions with the temporary excitement of a ‘fresh start,’ rather than the constant assurance and eternal security found in God’s covenant. What happens when the ‘fresh start’ loses its luster? When the feeling fades, the work stops, and we wait for another ‘fresh start’ resulting in procrastination, complacency and disobedience, delaying the very things God intended to accelerate for His purpose. God’s covenant is not a ‘fresh start’. He is known as the Ancient of Days, He is Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and The End. His covenant is built on His character, who He is, His faithfulness, what He has already done and what He is doing. His covenant makes way for the new! We are not starting over, but we are putting our faith in action allowing new things God has ordained through His covenant to come pass.

So, let’s NOT build our year on a “fresh start” or an adrenaline rush, but instead build it on God’s Covenant! His covenant is a sacred contract or binding agreement between us and Him. It runs through a deep bloodline, through the blood of Jesus, which bound us to an everlasting covenant, making us complete in every good work to do His will (Hebrews 13:20-21). God’s promises and Words over our lives are like building blocks, we do not need to wait for a ‘fresh start’ to be motivated in order to activate what He has spoken; We build each day through our faith and actions which follow. Building our lives and the Kingdom of God should not be motivated by milestone moments or the beginning of new calendar cycles; it’s time to replace self-motivation with God’s motivation.

Trust me, God’s motivation is way easier than the pressure we put on ourselves when we attempt to build in our strength. 

Psalm 127:1 “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it”.

There is a certain measure of grace which flows out of God's covenant that gives us the supernatural strength to do beyond what we planned or imagined. Let us approach this year with a covenant mindset: a mindset grounded in God’s promises and His Word.

Adopting a Covenant Mindset: Abraham – The Patriarch of Covenant ✝️ 📖🌈

We were pre-destined as Children of Covenant and created from a place of covenant. Psalm 139:16 (NLT) “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

We are heirs according to the Promise. Galatians 3:29 says, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Abraham is the covenant patriarch of the Bible. What an honour it is, how profound that we are the seed of Abraham, the seed of covenant because of Jesus. The Cross of Calvary re-connected us to covenant with God our Creator as he originally intended. 

Genesis 17:4, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.” When God told Abraham that he would be a father of many nations, he was not even a father of one child. As a matter of fact, two chapters before, Abraham was inquiring of the Lord about an heir, and the Lord said: “Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them… so shall your descendants be” (Genesis 15:5).✨

Imagine Abraham stepping outside, believing God, taking Him at His Word and His covenant, counting the stars above. Each time I look up at the sky and see the vastness of the stars, I remember Abraham, and I am encouraged by God’s covenant promises.

One might say Abraham had to be crazy, counting the stars, believing that it would be the number of his descendants, carrying God’s covenant for the nations, the entire world, when he didn’t even have a child. But even then and there, the God of covenant was thinking about you and I. Friend, when Abraham was numbering the stars in the sky, he was counting you and I, the future heirs of God’s promises and the beneficiaries of His covenant. What Abraham believed in God for, and saw signs of, today we walk in it, we are living proof of it, and we get to witness the full unfolding of God’s covenant plan manifested since the days of Abraham and still unfolding before our very eyes.

So, having established that we are heirs to the promise, the seed of Abraham because we belong to Jesus and are marked as Children of Covenant, let’s march forward and build a covenant mindset. Forget the fresh start effect, let’s get on board with the covenant effect: building our future aligned with the God of covenant, standing on His Word, remembering His promises, and putting faith into action even if that means stepping outside and counting the stars in the sky 😉 Sometimes it’s the silliest, simplest, tiniest acts of obedience that brings the promise closer to coming to pass. And God takes note of this and honours it as righteousness – Genesis 15:6 “And he (Abraham) believed in the Lord, and He (God) accounted it to him for righteousness.”

Don’t waste time on a ‘fresh start’, don’t wait on time to be motivated, the time to act is NOW. Be motivated by the one who created you and knows the end from the beginning, the God of Covenant, the God who is constant, the God of Abraham, the same God of yesterday, today and forevermore. Partner and build with Him adopting a covenant mindset and see Him do great and mighty things in your life. He is your Eternal Ebenezer, your Stone of Help!

Prayer🙏🏽

Eternal and Faithful Father, God of Abraham, I thank you that your promises are Yes and Amen. Lord as I march forward, help me to build my life and what you have called me to on Your Covenant, which You have already established and called done! I pray for a covenant mindset and courage to take the steps of faith that will propel me into your ordained plans and purpose for my life in Jesus name.