Monthly Monitor
january 2026
New Every Morning
It’s a new year. Not only do we turn over a page on the calendar, we begin a whole new calendar. For many, a new year brings promise of a new start, but many don’t have such an optimistic view.The bills from over-spending at Christmas are starting to come in, and there’s no more money now than there was a month ago. Your boss is still the same old hard-to-get-along-with guy he was before. Then there’s the problem of the extra ten pounds you put on due to all the goodies you consumed. None of this is new. The calendar may say a new year, but only the date is new.Even the Preacher of Ecclesiastes moaned that there’s nothing new. What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).Jeremiah, the “Weeping Prophet,” had his troubles too. He wrote, “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me” (Lamentations 3:19-20).
Learning to Be Content
What an irony it is that while we pursue a higher quality of life—taking this class, reading that book, achieving this goal, and obtaining that promotion—it still eludes us. On we go in a cycle of accomplishment, temporary pleasure, and then the nagging sense that something is still lacking. Could it be that what we’re seeking is contentment? Contentment, rather than being a prize we win or a goal we attain, is another of God’s gifts. The Apostle Paul knew both the secret of contentment and how to receive it. “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever the situation I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:11). If anyone could have said he was in need or want, it was Paul. He had suffered much, but he had learned to love God and trust His will regardless of the circumstances in which he found himself. We can be content also as we lean on Christ, learning to be satisfied with whatever God gives us.
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