Five-Star Monday Mornings


January 5, 2026


It’s the first Monday of 2026 — and the first issue of Five-Star Monday Mornings! Let’s start the week and year off right:


⭐️  Perspective — Psalm 90

1Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 

2Before the mountains were born,

before you gave birth to the earth and the world, 

from eternity to eternity you are God. …

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4For a thousand years in your sight are like a day, 

like yesterday that has gone by,

or like a watch in the night. …

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12Teach us to number our days in such a way 

that we bring a heart of wisdom. …

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14Satisfy us in the morning with your mercy, 

so that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 

15Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, 

for as many years as we have seen trouble. 

16Let your deeds be seen by your servants

and your majesty by their children. 

17May the kindness of the Lord our God rest upon us. 

Establish the work of our hands for us. 

Yes, establish the work of our hands. 

(Psalm 90:1,2,4,12,14-17 EHV)

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⭐️  Pearl — Luke 13

6[Jesus] told them this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it, but he did not find any. 7So he said to the gardener, ‘Look, for three years now I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I have found none. Cut it down. Why even let it use up the soil?’ 8But the gardener replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. 9If it produces fruit next year, fine. But if not, then cut it down.’ ” (Luke 13:6–9 EHV) 


Absent a terminal diagnosis of some kind most of us don’t number our days at all, let alone “in such a way that we bring a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, above). With this parable Jesus encourages us to consider two important truths: 

  1. What we do with our days and years matters — to us, yes; to the people around us, certainly; but also to God, the owner of the vineyard that is this world.
  2. The Lord’s patience with unproductive people has a limit. Trees that consistently bear no fruit will be cut down.

The most important fruit the Owner looks for, of course, is faith in Christ for salvation. But a life lived according to his will and filled with love for him and others is also fruit that he delights in.


What will 2026 look like for you, fruit-wise? In what ways can you bear more fruit than in 2025? It’s not fear of being “cut down” that motivates our love and good works as Christians — we do what we do in love for God and in thanks for his grace to us in Jesus and all his gifts — but the parable reminds us not to take our place in his vineyard for granted.


What a comfort it is, then, that it’s not up to us to gain his favor. He gives that freely in mercy and love. We can “sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14) not only because of his grace in saving us and claiming us as his own, but also because we know that he will answer all our prayers to “establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17) and bear fruits of love for him and for our neighbor.

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⭐️  Point of Fact — Fig

Figs are mentioned some 71 times in Scripture, starting with Genesis 3:7 when Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness after the Fall, appearing fairly often in the Gospels, and even showing up in an illustration in Revelation (6:13). This makes them a fairly important fruit, biblically speaking (whereas apples are mentioned about a tenth as much — and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Eden is nowhere identified as an apple tree, popular conceptions notwithstanding).


With figs that significant, it might seem strange that we have an expression in English to show how littleimportance we give to something: “I don’t give a fig (about that).” That expression, however, has nothing to do with fruit; in it “fig” refers instead to a rather obscene gesture (similar, in our day, to “giving someone the finger”). To "not give a fig", then, meant that you considered a matter so unworthy of your attention that you wouldn’t even bother to dishonor it with a rude hand signal. 


Seems like neither the sentiment of the expression nor the gesture it refers to are things Christ's people will indulge in. Go figure! 

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⭐️  Pith

“It is not enough to be busy. … The question is: What are we busy about?” — Henry David Thoreau 

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⭐️  Prayer

Dear Lord, as I begin a new year full of Mondays, mornings, and managing myself and everything I do, I remember that I am mortal and you are eternal. Yet you have placed eternity in our hearts and, through Christ, have made us heirs of eternal life. 


And since you have also given us the privilege of being your witnesses and ambassadors, pointing others to your gospel that they might also have life, the things we do today and every day that lies ahead have not just “right now” significance but eternal importance. I do not deserve this honor any more than I deserve your salvation, but you are merciful. Jesus gave me his righteousness and took my sin. 


For all this I can never thank you enough, but I praise you, and ask you to bless and empower the worship I give you which is my life of loving, grateful service to you, to your church, and to my neighbors, whoever and wherever they might be. To you be all glory and majesty forever! In the name of Jesus, your Son, Amen.


Bonus! ⭐️ Point to Ponder

What might there be in your life right now that should be bearing fruits of love* but isn’t? (A relationship, a responsibility, something you have that’s not being put to proper use, etc.?) What can or should you do differently to change that fruitless situation to a fruitful one?


*things done because you belong to Christ, that please God and serve your neighbor