2025 is God's year, not yours.

it’s that time of year again new year, new resolutions, and endless vision boards. but as christians, are we submitting our plans to God? in this episode, i unpack the dangers of claiming “2025 is my year” without first seeking God’s will.

we talk about the pride that fuels this mindset, how the enemy deceives us with goals that aren’t in alignment with God, and why true peace and joy can only come from walking in obedience to His plans.

this episode is all about humbling ourselves, submitting to God’s sovereignty, and being obedient when He calls us to act. don’t get to the end of 2025 in the same place you are now - let God lead your year.

what i talk about:

✨ why saying “this is my year” detaches us from God’s sovereignty
✨ how pride and worldly ambition can lead to spiritual stagnation
✨ recognising when your goals aren’t in alignment with God
✨ the role of obedience in walking into God’s purpose for your life
✨ how the enemy uses distraction and deception to pull us away from God

scriptures i mention:

• 1 corinthians 3:18-20 – "let no one deceive himself. if anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. for the wisdom of this world is folly with God."
• proverbs 16:9 – "the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."
• psalm 37:4-5 – "delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act."
• john 10:27 – "my sheep hear my voice, and i know them, and they follow me."
• luke 11:28 – "blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it."
• ephesians 3:20 – "now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us."

podcast episode mentioned: (when discipline becomes self-righteousness) https://www.buzzsprout.com/2255493/episodes/15913365

i pray this helps you to align your plans with God’s purpose and enter 2025 with humility, faith, and obedience 💗

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey home girls. Welcome back to the less of me podcast and Happy new year Merry christmas and a happy new year. It is 2025 Lockdown was five years ago Like that doesn't even that doesn't even sound You legit that doesn't sound right that doesn't sound okay like it's like when you see on tiktok like the um 2020 effect on how like We are all mentally still in 2020.

Like, I feel like I'm mentally still in 2021. Like, nowhere in life has like, pushed me past that and I'm still grappling with the fact that like, I am actually gonna be 23 this year. Well, not this year, next year, because I'm actually recording this a week before. I would be more excited about 2025, but it's currently like, the 29th of December.

So, your girl's early. Guys, I've actually come a long way, like, you know me and my [00:01:00] consistency, like, I, I think by default I'm a very consistent person in a lot of things, but I'm a very consistent person in a lot of things, we're getting there and I'm so grateful for all of you guys that are sticking around. I hope you guys are enjoying the podcast as well. Um, obviously I know I've been doing it for a while, but this is like the video podcast.

This is my fifth one. Um, And yeah, God is really moving. I'm really enjoying it. I feel like I'm able to reach a lot more of you guys. Whereas, like, when you're just doing an audio podcast, how do you really get people to hear about you, that you do a podcast, you know? Um, If you guys did come outside of YouTube and you came on Spotify then, you are like a special group of people because I don't know about you, but I, I thought about it, right, because you guys know that I've been trying to do a video podcast for a while.

And I was like, oh, but like the audio is so much easier. Like I had to get ready. I had to do my hair. My hair's not even fully dry yet. Honestly, sometimes I wish I was a white girl with like dead straight hair because I could just get out the [00:02:00] shower. Blow dry it, straighten it, call it a day. But unfortunately, there's a lot of work that goes into doing this and this isn't even like that good of a hair day, if I'm being honest.

Like I'm just kind of not feeling it. It's definitely going in a ponytail once I'm done. And I need to dye it as well. Oh my gosh. These are my roots. If you guys are listening, you guys are like, what are you on about? For some context, my dyed hair starts about halfway down my head, and I need a touch up, like, ASAP, but we haven't been doing that, but yeah.

My point is, I'm getting distracted. I thought about video podcast and I was like, do I ever listen? Like, I listen on Spotify to podcasts, but do I ever find these podcasts on Spotify? And the answer was no, because I'm always like on YouTube finding things or like Instagram or TikTok.

So I was like, okay. Like let's just cut the pride let's deal with the fact that like yeah It's gonna have to take you a little bit longer [00:03:00] to get ready But we're just gonna go with it, We're gonna dive straight into this episode It takes a lot of humility to accept the fact that 2025 or any new year or any plan or any ambition, any vision board, any resolution is not yours.

It is God's and it is submitted to the authority of Christ. I think it's a very common thing in the world. I did a video about this actually, I think Going into last year about how 2025 is not your year and people most people took it Well, some people were like not really feeling it, but I was kind of going from the point of in today's world understandably from a worldly perspective Unbelievers can have plans that They don't have to ask for anyone else's opinion.

They can just do whatever they want. And you might think that there's a freedom that comes with that, but we know that God's plans are to prosper us and not to harm us and he is an everlasting [00:04:00] God who sees all things he sees from a bird's eye view whereas we see horizontally and we will stumble into things because we don't have the foresight that God has, we don't have the power and the pure thoughts as well because I think we as, um, believers need to recognize that whilst the world may think that their plans are amazing, their plans are of value, their plans are going to prosper, them going to bring them good.

Good things. We know that the reason why we came to Christ was because we weren't those things You can't come to Christ without Being like disappointed in yourself, and that's not in a condemning way but We all came to Christ at a place of brokenness Even if that place of brokenness wasn't like me like I was pretty darn broken girl Like I was like a hot mess even if that wasn't you and you came to Christ like You happy to come to Christ and like relief in coming to Christ there's that relief because [00:05:00] there's a former life that you don't want anymore because you've tried to do it on your own and now you see the light and how incredible is that light because that light brings you out of this self righteous hustle culture mindset that promises a lot but under delivers and I think We, in Christian culture, we know these things theoretically, but when it comes to walking in that, particularly in big peak points of our lives, whether it's a new job, you know, a marriage, a relationship, having a kid, or, you know, a New Year's resolution, a new year, you know, I'm gonna do these new things, I'm gonna plan these things out for my life and take ownership of this year.

And don't get me wrong, I'm the first person to put in place Plans. I'm the first person to hold yourself [00:06:00] accountable to what you want to do, but it's what you want to do Through the eyes of Christ It's not what you want to do because if you did everything you wanted to do and you keep feeding your flesh You will keep feeding into things that don't serve you.

I remember Jackie Hill Perry did a video talking about feeding your sin And she said, you know, if you tell yourself that you're just going to have this one doughnut and you keep indulging in doughnuts, you can have doughnuts every single day. You're telling me that you're not going to want cake, you're telling me that you're not going to want chocolate, you're not going to want sweets, you're not going to want hamburgers, you're not going to want fast food every single day.

Your flesh will continue to desire more if you feed it a tiny bit, you can't restrict the flesh. The flesh doesn't say, oh I can You know dabble in this thing, but I promise I won't dabble in this we can't Assure that of ourselves which is why there is such a freedom in christ because we lean on a god Who is god who is [00:07:00] lord of lords king of kings and can provide us with boundaries and can transform us From the inside out so we don't fall into those things anymore and we lose taste for those things But in the world, I think there's like that you know, typical like 2025 is gonna be my year girl and like I'm gonna do all these things and this is my vision board and these are the things I'm gonna achieve and great, cool, but I think Christian culture has taken that and ran with it and then written god signature at the end.

When they're making their vision board, when they're planning those things, when they're reaching these goals and trying to reach a purpose, they are reaching a purpose that is in alignment with them, in alignment with what they want, in alignment with what suits them, in alignment with what's comfortable, might bring the most material goods, maybe that's money, maybe that's You know a house, maybe that's the way you look maybe that's the people around you a relationship or the holidays you go on [00:08:00] And i'm not saying that god doesn't want those things for you But god wants those things for you In a way that he ordained it and I think like I said in a podcast not long ago.

I said You can't put God's name on something that he didn't warrant. If 2025 is gonna be all that you wanna do, all that suits you, all that's comfortable to you, but you're just gonna say thank God at the end, that was your year. That was you giving in to the flesh and you saying, oh, you know, I am a Christian but like I do these things that I want and like I'll say thank you God because like I guess that makes sense.

Like that, that's not of God and that is a mindset that the enemy wants you to get into because that's his way of trickling you down a path that goes away from the path of God. And this all boils down to one word and that word is pride. You can't tell me that that is a humble way of entering the new year. Maybe you're someone who loves [00:09:00] planning, but have you prayed? about that planning? Have you committed it to God?

Have you been in your word in 2024 to know what God has to say about what you're going to do in 2025? Have you had a word from God? God has leaded you somewhere, he's given you vision, he's given you direction and you are purposely going the other way or purposely tweaking that slightly to suit your narrative and you're going to go forward with that.

That is a mindset of pride and that is a mindset of destruction. Pride comes before a fall. That's what the Bible says. And in Proverbs 16 verse 9 it says the heart of man plans his way but the Lord establishes his steps. Our hearts by default desire. They want things, they crave things, they feel like they need things.

And that's Increased all the more in the society that we live in that is all about taking I don't know if you [00:10:00] guys have seen it online recently Whether it's like going into this year or previous years. There's always that, you know, here's how to plan out your 2025 Here's how to be a bad b in 2025.

Here's how to boss up in 2025 and there's this constant narrative of You aren't good enough and this is how you're going to get there Which, like, I don't want to be preaching, but I feel like that mindset, in theory, like, fleshly, makes sense. That we're always going to be less than what we want. But I want to challenge you to see that whilst that way of living provides, like, Freedom of thought, freedom of action, um, to achieve what you want to achieve.

You're always going to feel like you're on the back burner. You're always going to feel like you're ten steps behind. You're always going to feel like you're not achieving as much as you could be achieving because you aren't good enough. You simply [00:11:00] aren't working hard enough. You simply aren't doing the right things.

You simply aren't working out enough. You're simply not eating vegetables. You're simply eating too much. Burgers or pizza and there's always gonna be that I am inferior to these other people on social media I'm comparing myself and unless I work myself to the bone and I you know Have all the new skincare and have the right makeup and buy these things online and you know enter this 12 week program to get ABS like I'm not gonna be good enough and you know Whilst the Bible calls us to discipline and obedience, I'm going to go into that later on, I want you to know that with a life in Christ, a life in Christ says that you already are that, like fill in the blank.

You are a child of God, you are saved, you are righteous, you are pure, you are holy, and it just takes us as people who used to live in the flesh and now we [00:12:00] are being accustomed to living in the spirit, it takes us recognizing that. The world will tell you that you are not those things and here's how you get to those things.

The bible will tell you you are those things and let me transform you by the renewing of your mind so you know that, so you recognize that. And that is where the heart of man falls so. far behind the heart of God and the plans of God. The plans of God being there in a way more sustainable way, to when you're doing it on your own.

But I want to go into this pride thing a little bit more, um, because I think we are getting to a place in the world, and we always have been. Like, I, I know, like, that's like such a like mum thing to say like this is like what like mums always say like you know the world we live in today like you gotta look in corinthians girl look back at the bible go to judges i'm reading judges right now the [00:13:00] wildness that was taking place doesn't even make sense in my mind like these things obviously still happen today there are people that are so destructive and we are seeing more and more of it openly trickled in our society, it's overt, but I think more today it's that covert sin, in the sense of we are sort of behind a screen, but we are, we are sinning, and we are rejecting God, and we are doing these, you know, terrible things, but we're weaving it in through smart propaganda.

Back then they didn't need no propaganda. You see the way that the Canaanites were living and how the Israelites adapted to that mindset and adapted to those ways of worshipping gods and ways of celebrating their sexuality in absolute illegal, not just immoral, illegal ways. You will know that this is a human heart from Kingdom Come and the human heart will want to raise itself on a pedestal.

And that pedestal [00:14:00] is God. So I'm going to stamp on God's name, stamp on God's sovereignty, stamp on God's authority, and say, I have the final say. I have the ability. the skills, the insight, the wisdom that surpasses anything that God can say. Like, what, what does God have to do with anything?

And that might not be how you think. You might be like, Elodie, like, you're really reaching right now. Like, I'm just, you know, putting a vision board together. I have my plans of what I want to do. Good. But that's where it starts. That's where this mindset of detaching oneself from God, saying that I want God in one area but not in this one.

Like, he can touch these parts, sure, but these parts, like, that's for me and that's for my personal gain. As a believer, the word personal should [00:15:00] only be relevant in a personal relationship with God. So personal should only be attached to the person of Christ. It's not about personal gain, it's not about personal, you know, ambitions, personal vision, personal resolutions.

What does that mean? Because you are a vessel of Christ, meaning that you have the Holy Spirit living in you. How dare you say that you've got parts of you that are for yourself? Parts of you that are for me. And I think it's even like, you could even think about relationships. I think that's a really good example.

People will have a list, a list of things that they want in a man. My list is very simple. A man of God. From that springs forth anything you want to think about. springs forth kindness, patience, joy, humility, peace. It springs forth spiritual maturity.

It springs forth ambition to do the will of God. It springs forth a respect for your wife and for your children. It [00:16:00] springs forth the desire to provide and lead in a way that is loving and towards the will of God. Those things are the only things I'd be caring about. The only things I did care about when I was looking for a man And I can promise you that those Characteristics are what will sustain you More than I want a doctor I want someone with an mba.

I want someone who's got like a high credit score I want someone who has already Like got to manager a position in his company. I want someone who You Whatever. Whatever. Who cares? Really and truly, girl, I don't care, but that doesn't matter. God does not care. God does not give two hoots about qualifications.

Life qualifications. Things that make you so say more ahead in life. And there was a [00:17:00] scripture, I wish I could remember it, but I'm not going to look it up. I'll put it on the screen. And I will put it in the description if you are. listening. Um, it's a scripture that basically talks about like worldly gain and worldly qualifications, worldly wisdom and knowledge and how that is like nothing to Christ.

But yet we will say that's everything to Christ. And maybe that's something that's in your vision board in your New Year's resolutions. And yes, if God calls you to study, he calls you to study. If God calls you to reach a certain point in the world so you can lift him up and bring him to a point of exaltation, cool, calm, that's fine.

But I think when it's for the point of simple pride or you want that in a man, you want that in your friendship group, you want that in all of these particular ways, I only want to be around doctors, I only want to be Girl, that is not of God. That is, and I also think it's a disrespect of God. It's a disrespect of God in the sense [00:18:00] of you have received the grace of God, but yet you won't give and extend that grace to someone else.

When I met Nas, he was brokely broke broke. He was on a year out in uni because of anxiety. Oh, red flag. He Was just not he was a kid. And so was I I was broke. I was jobless The only job I was doing was youtube and then like I think nine months into our relationship. I ended up getting a job um cool But that's not you know what we weren't at a great place But yet three years down the line Nas is exceeding in his career I'm exceeding in my career not careers that just so say suit the salary and suit the lifestyle.

We want to live Yes, we're blessed for what we have You But we have gone through a journey of God refining us and showing us, particularly Nas, in what God wants to do in his life. If [00:19:00] I entered that relationship saying, you must be at this point, I was missing out on the potential of that man. And if you, even for yourself, if you go in 2025 saying that you have to reach these things, these material things, and you put that on a pedestal over the potential and the gifting and the anointing that God has on your life, which might even not showcase in the material, it might even only showcase in the secret place, in the spiritual, you are letting yourself go down a path of trying to find worldly potential and keeping your spiritual potential in prison in jail you're keeping it locked up in a box not to be realized not to be achieved not to be you know used for the kingdom of God 

And those things are cool like maybe on your vision board you've got you know I want to you know buy a house. I want to get a dog. I want to get engaged. I [00:20:00] want to, you know, pay for my mum to go on holiday. Great things. Love that. New job, you know? Um, I want to be able to save X amount of money next year.

Those are all godly, great things that I don't want you to take off of your vision board. I don't want you to take off of your mind and say that you can't achieve those things and you know, I've got to be a monk and in 2025 I've just got to sit in my room with my bible and not go and do anything because those things are fruit. Of God's faithfulness and they are also testimonies to other people of God's faithfulness. I don't want you to let that go, but what I want you to do is to realize that if you have all of this, but you don't have all of this vertical, you will be without peace, without joy. without sustainability as well because sometimes we're reaching goals that we don't even have the strength [00:21:00] that we can muster up in ourselves that only God can provide and we will lose that thing or it won't last.

If you don't have the king of kings at the seat at the forefront in the driving seat of your life of your goals of your year you will crash you will go off path and you will run out of fuel you will also potentially make a lot of errors because okay example you want to buy a house you don't buy the right one , you don't hear God's wisdom to guide you into the the right area to guide you to the right house.

He will guide you maybe financially as well. You want a partner, you want a new boyfriend, you wanna get engaged or whatever. If you are doing that in your own vision, your own [00:22:00] mindset, your own ideas and checklists and whatever, not your checklists are weak. in comparison to God. They are pathetic. They are stupid.

They are dumb. We can't say that we can choose a man of God without God. A lot of you want a man of God, but like, you also want these other things that spring off of that. Like, oh, I'm only going to date a guy with a degree. I'm only going to date a guy that does this. I'm only going to date a guy that has this much money.

I'm only going to date a guy blah blah blah. And those are the things that you think about. This is what you're going into the year for. You're, you're almost envisioning this man but you're not envisioning the spiritual growth that you want this man to have and the spiritual growth that he wants to grow with you in your relationship.

What does that say about your personal relationship with God? What does that say about how you're entering the new year? That all of these things hold more precedence than God and his plans for your life. You can [00:23:00] have all of these things, but if you don't have the God who gifts these things, the God who sustains these things, the God who gives you the talent and the skill and the ability to get these things, where are you?

Proverbs 3 verse 5 to 6, my favorite scripture ever, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. In all your ways, in every single way, acknowledge God. So not in some things, not in this thing, but not this thing, in all ways acknowledge him, so that means remember him.

Think about him. Have him on your mind, have him in your heart. Don't have the things, but have him ahead of those things. Have him reap the idea and the wisdom for the things that you should want. I think that, [00:24:00] that's another thing, it's like yes, what I said, you know, all those different things, like the marriage, the holidays, whatever, all those things are great, but it's almost like we kind of act like a kid in a candy store When it comes to the new year like maybe you're like this in general and we all have been we all have treated God like a Genie we all have assumed that whatever we want we can pray for and it will be done or we don't pray for it But we do it anyway, and then we say thank you God at the end when God's like girl I didn't even tell you to do that.

Don't put my name on it. I don't want you to forge my signature Um, but I also think it's from the point of we don't even ask God what he wants Like, you could have the vision board, okay, a little bit better, and you pray over it, and you say, God, you know, I pray that you leave me and all these things, blah blah blah.

But like, the conception, when it says acknowledge God in all things, it's not just, oh, I have this thing, but I acknowledge him in it. It's, I don't have this thing. I don't have anything. I only have you. God, I want you to bring me the thought. [00:25:00] Give me the right thought. Take out any thought, anything that is of offense, anything that is not of you in my heart and in my mind and in my vision board on my new year's resolutions, take it away.

I don't want it. What I want is what you want for me. So I'm going to go with a blank canvas. It's almost like I encourage you to start with a blank canvas and literally just sit in prayer, sit in worship and say, God, what do you have in store for me? And it might even be something so simple as I want to grow with you God might say I just I just want to have a relationship with you That doesn't mean that these things don't spring forth But since when is it that we approach a new year we approach a new, you know year of life even in a birthday we approach new things like a new job or a new relationship and we approach it with the mindset of What can I get from it?

And we don't approach it with, how can this be an [00:26:00] opportunity for me to grow in a relationship with Christ? You're entering the new year and you're thinking about what you can have in the world, you're candy picking what you can have in the world, and you're not thinking about who you can become with 

the love of Christ with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What can I learn this year from him? What wisdom can I gain? What fruit can I grow in? Who can I touch? Oh my gosh, who can I touch? Because on your vision board, who else is on there? Outside of your man, outside of the that are comfortable to you, who is on your vision board?

You wanna, I don't know, be famous, become an influencer. I want to become an influencer full stop. Why? To serve, to love, [00:27:00] to be humble. To preach the good news of Christ to give people hope. If that's not on there, take away that dream. Influencer, done. I don't want you to have it. God doesn't want you to have it either because if the only reason you want it is so you can get brand deals, so you can look pretty, so you can, you know, whatever, look, look a certain way and not reach people through that purpose.

What is the purpose of your vision? If the purpose of your vision isn't to make disciples of all nations, isn't to preach the kingdom of God, I'm not saying you've got to be a preacher, I'm not saying you've got to be a teacher, but are you being the salt of the earth? Do you have seasoning in the way that you go about things?

You want a relationship, but is that relationship Going to season you, going to season them, and going to season others. In the previous episode with me and Nas, Nas made a really good point about relationships and dating and marriage is a ministry. You want people to look [00:28:00] at your relationship and give praise to God, give thanks to God.

So if all the things that you're going to get is maybe only going to make people jealous, only going to make people envious, only gonna make people feel like they're less than.

Why do it? If it's not gonna bring glory to God, why do it? We have, like, the propensity to be so selfish in our dreams. We all do it. Even now, I'm, like, I'm being slapped in the face myself and being like, Elodie, like, when you dream about things, are you dreaming for the sake of other people? Are you dreaming for the sake of yourself?

And that's one of the massive reasons as to why If you guys don't know, I had a YouTube channel before this that was, you know, quite popular. It got to like 70, 000 subscribers, like, just under. And, you know I could have kept going, I could have kept growing, I was getting brand deals, I was making like decent money for a teenager, like part time job money.

I had the freedom, I had the creativity, but I was doing it all for myself. It wasn't Christ [00:29:00] centered, I didn't know who I was. I was losing myself slower and slower because I felt like I had to be a certain person to get the views. I had to look a certain way to get the views. I was constantly comparing myself to my other like YouTube friends, my other YouTube peers.

Influencers, whoever they were, I felt like I wasn't good enough. I felt like I had to put on a certain persona, personality, and that wasn't me. Like, don't get me wrong, like, a lot of the videos, it was me shining through, but I think in the back of my mind, I was like, okay, I gotta be like really funny. I gotta, you know, put on this certain act so people like me.

And, you know, I kept going and I felt God tugging at me. This was like at the end of 2020. And I felt him say let go What What do you mean like let go? Of this thing that I have built from the ground up I started that channel when I was 15 Years old in year [00:30:00] 10 and I had just finished college I was 18 about to turn 19 and god told me To drop it like two years after I went viral two years of like, bliss, of growing in subscribers, of being famous, of having people run up to me, of having this life that I always wanted. From the age of seven, I wanted to be a YouTuber. Because I used to watch Family Vloggers, I used to be on my mum's iPhone 3GS, and all I used to watch all day was YouTubers.

That's what I wanted. I wanted to make videos. I wanted to edit. I love the idea of the cameras and the technology I love like just all everything everything about it YouTube was always my passion being on camera is my passion editing was my passion being creative was my passion and God told me to drop it, but he said I don't want you to drop it it I want you to drop the purpose of it.

Why are you doing it? I want you to re evaluate and bring that back to the foot of the cross. God never said that I was without gifting. [00:31:00] In fact, I felt like the more I grew in Christ, the more I had passion and vision for the things I wanted to do for his kingdom, through the things I was already doing.

Through the YouTube, through the TikTok, through my voice, you know, I was always a very passionate person. I always had a lot to say. I was very opinionated. If you go back to my old channel, I kind of hope you don't, but if you do, you know I was quite passionate. opinionated in what I did. And I, I, I was persuasive.

I was definitely able to capture an audience and I don't want to, I don't want to let go of that. And I knew that God didn't want me to let go of that. God was like, I just want you to reframe your passion into things that serve me. There might be that thing that you want, but God's saying, I want you to have it, but I don't want you to have it like that.

Oh, I don't want you to do it like that. I don't want you to think about it like that. I don't want you to think that it only serves you. I want you to think that it serves me and serves my people Do it in a way that's more sustainable. And I can tell you that I am so much more at peace. I'm [00:32:00] so much more fulfilled.

I don't compare myself to other influencers. I don't, like, I'll watch people and I'll be like, They're so cool, like them, whatever, follow, whatever, but I don't get jealous. I don't constantly look on other people's pages and think, oh, I wish I was like them. I wish I had as many subscribers as them. I wish, like, no, like, I'm Elodie.

I'm me. I'm myself. And I'm glad that I'm myself. And I'm going to stay in my own lane. I'm going to pray for them in their lane and God will continue to bless them and bless me because we serve the same God. And if we're serving the same God in humility, he'll continue to push us forward in a way that benefits him. And don't get me wrong, there's been times that I have felt burnt out doing this, as in doing the new Christian channel and the Christian content and all of that. But I can tell you those were times where I didn't have God's sovereignty above me. I wasn't leaning on God, I maybe wasn't in my word, I maybe wasn't praying in the way that I should have been praying.

But on the whole, [00:33:00] I don't get burnt out because I'm doing it for God. I'm not doing it for me. As I said, I'm not like, you know how exhausting it was having to constantly compare yourself, feeling like you weren't good enough, and leading it back to you guys with your goals and your vision and your plans for 2025 doing it your way, doing it out of your flesh, conjuring up that strength and that wisdom and that consistency, you're always going to fall and you're always going to feel less than. You're always going to feel like a failure, always going to feel burnt out. You think about like, the richest people ever, the billionaires, the big businessmen.

I'm watching Suits right now. Love it. Me and my mum love that show. But we always, like, say, like, give God thanks that we don't have a job like that. And that we don't live like that. They're constantly cutting corners. They're constantly thinking about business. All the time. They don't have good personal lives.

Their relationships are [00:34:00] terrible. They don't have friends outside of their colleagues. They spend almost every waking moment in the office, and if they're not in the office and they're at home, they're talking about the office, they're talking about work. And their lives are surrounded by backstabbing, and money, and power.

And, you might look at them on the outside, like, I could go to New York now, and walk through, I don't even know, is it Manhattan? Times Square? Americans, I'm so sorry. I don't even know like the rich places in America in America in New York The rich place in New York, you know, you're seeing the lawyers walk around you're seeing the bankers.

You're seeing the investors You're seeing like all these rich people people that have clearly worked so hard to get to where they are On the outside, you know, they're getting picked up by their chauffeur. They have their like 2000 pound suit on They have the pretty girl they get to go out to food and the most incredible places with the incredible views they get to Live life like [00:35:00] the the top percentage of people They aren't happy They aren't fulfilled.

I can tell you right now that they don't sleep great at night They gain all that money to only have to spend it later in life because they have heart problems, because they now have chronic anxiety, because they have rashes all the time because of their stress. They actually have developed diseases later on in life, things that cost a lot of money to cure, things that take a lot of time to cure, and things that stop them from living the life that they so desperately wanted, but never had. A life like that where you're constantly pushing for more, because that's what the world will tell you. Every new year, every new thing, every new season, the world will tell you to push for more, to get more, to be more, to have more. And I'm not saying that God doesn't want you to , to strive either.

I'm not [00:36:00] saying that God doesn't want you to have obedience either and reach for things higher, but God also wants you to do all of that in satisfaction of what you already have in Christ. There is no satisfaction when you're constantly pushing for more and that's all you think about. Like, I'm doing this YouTube thing, my podcast, yes. Would I be lying if I said I didn't want to grow? Yeah, I'd be lying. a horrible liar because why would I do it if I didn't have big ambitions for it? But do I sit every day like, refreshing my views, constantly worrying and trying to come up with the content that beats another person? That's what I was doing before and it was so draining and I never thanked God for where I was at that point because I didn't have God.

I wasn't a Christian. I didn't have the understanding of God. Regardless of the stage that I'm at right now, I can rejoice in the fact that I have a relationship with the king of the universe, the [00:37:00] creator of the universe, the one who knit me together purposely and intentionally in my mother's womb.

There is so much danger in constant fighting, constant striving, constant seeking. And outside of even the consequences that that could cause, like I just said about the people in New York and the big lawyers and stuff. I think it's, I think you run the danger of ruining yourself.

You run the danger, like I said, of the pride, but I think pride, pride can be quite . Silent. Pride can be quite private. People might not know that you have the pride, you might not even know you have the pride, but the more you continue to feed into that pride, the more the pride will be evident and the more the pride will ruin and destroy your life, destroy you, destroy your friendships, destroy your peace, destroy your marriages, your, your relationship with your children.

It might even destroy. The way that you see money. It might destroy your self control. You know, you see [00:38:00] a lot of people, these top lawyers, a lot of them are insane gamblers. A lot of them spend money on sex. They spend money on prostitutes. They spend money on ridiculous things that a lot of the time they can't really afford, or if they can afford it, It's just not a good investment and it just goes like the wind and they're constantly trying to seek more, get more, feel fulfilled by more, the new things, the new cars and new women and they destroy themselves in the process and that is what will happen if you keep following your heart.

The bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things. Who can understand it, I think it says. Who can grapple with the depth and the evil that resides in our heart when we let it run rampant? When we don't submit it to God? But you might be saying, oh but the Bible says that God will give you the desires of your heart This is Psalm 37 verses 4 to 5 and [00:39:00] it says delight yourself in the Lord And he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will act. A lot of people be forgetting the first part. Well, people would be forgetting the end part as well. People will be just saying that middle thing He will give you the desires of your heart.

But it says delight in the Lord. It means Be rejoicing in the fact that the Lord has better for you than you have for yourself. Rejoice in the fact that God has protection over you. Rejoice in the fact that God has boundaries on you. Rejoice in the fact that God's spirit is more wise than your flesh.

Rejoice in the fact that his commandments are of benefit more than your leading. It says, commit your way to the Lord. Commit it. So it's saying, I commit these things to you, Lord. [00:40:00] Trust in him. So trust that he will not only do it, but he will do it his way and he will act. Everything that we do, like God is at the nucleus.

So God is not going to act if that action does not serve him. God is not going to act if it puffs up your pride. If the thing that you want is just so you can boast in the fact that you have these things, that you have the car, that you have the fame, that you have the new job, that you have the guy who has an MBA, if that's only to, to boost yourself, like, what does that do for the Kingdom of God?

You can want things, but the specific things, I think, in which the world will try and tell us that we need to, like, strive for are so materialistic and so distracting and I think it doesn't allow God to move because I think, don't get me wrong, God can give us specific plans and specific vision as to what he's going to do, but I think the beauty of God [00:41:00] is that he sometimes leads mysteriously, but the beauty of a believer that follows God wholeheartedly and trusts God wholeheartedly, they don't need the full story.

They don't need the full A to Z. They, they just trust that God is going to do it. They have a rough idea of how he's going to do it, maybe when, but you know, God, I trust you. That believer is so much more in tune with the Holy Spirit, so much more at peace than the person who has the very specific plan of how they want exact things to work out.

Those are the ones that are filled with anxiety. Those are the ones that aren't satisfied in life. They don't have the ability to just sit down and let God do what God's doing because they're constantly sticking their nose in it and they constantly want things to be exactly how they have planned. And I love this scripture in 2 Corinthians, this is 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14 and it says, and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself [00:42:00] as an angel of light. You might have all of these plans, all of these plans you think are so godly, so heavenly, so good. The enemy is a liar and the enemy is a distractor and the enemy is a copier He takes what God does and he twists it into perversion. He takes what God does and he twists it into a way to lead you down a path that is completely opposite from the way that God is going. The way that God has planned for your life to go.

And now we've gone into all of that. I want to talk about obedience. A lot of y'all don't want to hear that part. When God is speaking, once you have submitted to him, once you have given your all to him, and he has poured back into you a form of a task, an objective, a plan, a thing that you should do, will you [00:43:00] follow it?

Are you going to sit down on your butt? 2025 come January 15th and just let the year pass and get to the end of 2025 saying oh but you know I didn't do what I wanted to do but 2026 will be better I'll do it then but like Life's really hard right now, but I've got this thing that I got to do and I have this thing that takes precedence and God, you understand that like, I can't do this right now because I'm not ready, I'm not comfortable.

If God speaks, God has purpose. God doesn't just ramble. God isn't a waffler. If this was God's podcast, he'd be done in five seconds because he'd tell you, baby girl, what you need to do and it would resonate. Deep in your heart wouldn't need to be sat here telling you what you should do and trying to convince you because God is God And when God says what he says, he stands on his word and he expects you to stand on it as well God doesn't just stand on his word.

He wants you to stand on it He wants you to act in it. He wants you to [00:44:00] see it as The most important thing over everything in life If God gives you a vision for this year, you put that at the top of everything else, you don't let it fall down the priority list.

You ensure that not only are you doing, because I think with obedience people assume that that's podcast on this not long ago, I will link it below, um, a lot of people will assume that that's striving, that's working, and that's like beating yourself up. Actually, Obedience is when you let God work.

Obedience is when you recognize the grace of God through Christ Jesus and the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus that you are now set free, you now have a pure relationship with the Father and you have the Holy Spirit in you who will guide you in all things. Obedience is saying, God I let you take the wheel.

Obedience is saying, I don't want to lean on my own flesh but I want to lean on you Lord. [00:45:00] Obedience is saying, I'm finding this hard but I'm going to lean on God for the ultimate wisdom because he knows exactly what I should be doing and when I should be doing it.

Don't get to the end of 2025 being at the exact same place as you are right now. And don't let the end of 2025 leave you tired because you have worked so hard but you haven't leaned on the spirit of God to do what he set out to do.

Some scriptures I want to leave you with. John 10 verse 27. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Luke 11 verse 28. Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Deuteronomy 5 33 you shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live and that it may go well with you

and then Ephesians 3 verse 20, now to [00:46:00] him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us.

God has better. God's plan, God's sovereignty, God's holiness is better. We call God our rock in certain scenarios. Maybe it's in sickness or in times of despair, in times of insane need for something. We call God our rock, our shelter, our fortress. That insinuates God's holiness. If God is holy, that insinuates that he rules above everything.

But we take that and we assume that that means forcefulness and we step back from that and we run away and we do our own thing because that sounds scary. But if God is our fortress and God is holy and God's holiness allows him to be our fortress, the two go hand in hand. When you are praying for what you're praying for in [00:47:00] 2025 Recognize that not only God has complete authority, he has love in that authority, he has care in that authority, he has divine intention, personal intention, not just for the universe, not just for his kingdom, the body of Christ, for you.

The same God who knows the very hairs on your head will guide you in a divine, holy way and rejoice in that holiness. Don't run away from it. Don't think that that gives you, you know, Restriction in life. In fact, that that actually opens you up to more opportunities than you could ever ask or imagine.

And it starts with here. It starts with here, your heart connecting with here, the heavens, and molding you into a person that equips you to do all the things that you want to do. That's where you start. You don't start with the reaching in a place of pride, in a place of want, in a place of. you know, selfishness.

You start with a place [00:48:00] of quietness. You start with a place of, Lord, humble my heart. Take out all those things that aren't of you and give me a heart of flesh. Replace my heart of stone with a heart of flesh. And help me to follow your way. That is how you should start the year. You don't start the year saying, This is my year, ow, this is my year.

No. You don't start the year saying, This is my year, period. Like, I'm going to do all the things that I want to do. No, you say, This is God's year. How can I hear His voice? Some of you need to exercise hearing God's voice and not hearing yourself. Some of you, your first New Year's task, resolution should be to open your Bible.

Should be to get in the secret place. Should be to actually hear what God has to say because if your plans aren't in alignment with what's written down in the living word of God, it will be dead. Only God, only the word, only prayer is what will unlock what is really for you. [00:49:00] But I do pray that you guys have a blessed 2025.

I pray that you have a 2025 that grows you spiritually and in all things. That God gives you abundance but he also shows you that the true abundance is in a relationship with him. That everything that you get leads you back to the hope that can only be found in Christ. But I love you guys. Have a blessed week, second week, I think, of 2020.

Five? Oh my gosh. I feel so old. Like I really deeped it that i'm closer to 25 than I am to 18.

Anyways, i'm uh, i'm gonna go look for some gray hairs now. Joking. Love you guys. See you in the next podcast. Bye