Here “a word” means a message that someone says is from God. The title asks: does God give a special message about each new month?
What is this page about?
Every month the same kind of message goes out, on television and on social media, around the world. This is your month. Doors will open. Money will come. You will get back what you lost.
When the month is a disappointment, the next message explains why. Then it promises the next month.
At the end of 2019, some people made the same promise about a whole year. They said that 2020 would be a year of “perfect vision”. Three months later, churches everywhere were closed because of a great sickness.
What this page holds
The Bible’s promises are for every month.Some people promise that the coming month or year will bring believers a better life. This has no ground in the Bible or in the Christian faith of the past. The Bible’s promises for this month are its promises for every month: Christ is with us, God has mercy, sins are forgiven, and there is a hope after death. And think of a promise that is made again every month, whatever happened. That is not comfort. It is a forecast that nobody ever checks.
The first mistake
Faith should announce a good month.A believer shows faith when he says aloud that the month will be good. This page tests this view.
The second mistake
Christians should expect nothing good.Life is hard, so do not hope for anything from God. This page rejects this view. The apostles comforted people all the time, and they taught people to pray with courage. They only never told people what the next month would bring.
Forecast
A statement about what will happen in the future, like a weather forecast.
What does the message look like?
This page made up these examples. They are not anyone’s real words. But most readers will know the kind.
- “Welcome to your month of overflow. Every door that is shut against you will open before the thirtieth.”
- “Did last month disappoint you? The enemy only fights the thing that is about to be born. This is your month of recovery.”
- “Whatever you lost this year, God will give it back seven times before December.”
Notice four things.
- The message has a date: this month.
- It promises things in your life: money, open doors, getting things back.
- It is for everyone who listens. It does not matter what they believe or do.
- It starts again every time. A bad month never counts against it.
A promise, or a forecast with a date?
| The sentence | What is it? |
|---|---|
| “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) | A promise of the Bible. It has no date. |
| “This month, every closed door in your life will open.” | A forecast. It has a date and a result. No Bible text promises it. |
| “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins.” (1 John 1:9) | A promise of the Bible. It is true every day. |
| “Before this year ends, you will live in your own house.” | A forecast. You may pray for a house. Nobody may promise it in God’s name. |
| “In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) | A promise in both halves. The trouble is promised as surely as the comfort. |
| “You lost last month because the enemy knew what was coming to you this month.” | A forecast that starts again. A bad month becomes the proof of a good one. No text says it. |
What does James say about next year?
One passage in the New Testament speaks directly to people who announce what the coming year will bring.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.
James 4:13–16 · World English Bible
In simple words: Listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this city. We will stay there for a year, do business, and make money.” You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? You are like a mist. It is there for a short time, and then it is gone. You should say, “If the Lord wants it, we will live and do this or that.” But now you are proud and you boast. All boasting of this kind is evil.
James does not tell them to stop planning. He does not tell them to stop hoping. He tells them to stop announcing.
A prayer asks God for a good year. A forecast tells people that they will have one.
Jesus said the same thing:
Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.
Matthew 6:34 · World English Bible
In simple words: So do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Jesus expected that each day would have its own trouble.
It calls a sure forecast of a good business year “boasting”. It puts other words in its place: “If the Lord wills.”
The favourite verse, and the chapter before it
People quote one verse for a new month more than any other.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11 · World English Bible
In simple words: “I know the plans that I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for peace and not for harm. I will give you hope and a future.” (“Yahweh” is God’s name in the Old Testament.)
This verse is part of a letter. The letter was written to Jews who had been taken as prisoners to the far country of Babylon.
The verse just before it says when God would bring them home: “After seventy years” (Jeremiah 29:10). Most of them would die in Babylon.
What should they do until then? The letter told them to build houses, plant gardens, have families, and pray for the city where they now lived (Jeremiah 29:5-7). And it warned them not to believe the prophets who promised that they would go home soon (Jeremiah 29:8-9).
One of those prophets is in the chapter before. His name was Hananiah. He announced in the temple that God would end their time in Babylon “Within two full years” (Jeremiah 28:3).
Jeremiah answered him. In simple words: “I hope that you are right. But when a prophet promises peace, we know that God sent him only when his word comes true” (Jeremiah 28:6-9).
Then God’s message came to Hananiah:
Yahweh has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie.
Jeremiah 28:15 · World English Bible
In simple words: The Lord has not sent you. But you make this people trust in a lie.
Hananiah died in that same year (Jeremiah 28:17).
The monthly message quotes Jeremiah’s verse, but it uses Hananiah’s dates. These two chapters were written so that people could tell those two voices apart.
What did Jesus and the apostles tell people to expect?
The cross. “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)
Trouble, and peace in the middle of it. On his last night, Jesus told his disciples: “In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Hard times as the normal thing. People threw stones at Paul and left him for dead. A few days later he told new Christians that “through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom” (Acts 14:22). Peter wrote: “don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you” (1 Peter 4:12). In simple words: do not be surprised when you suffer.
One forecast with a date. In the book of Revelation, Christ gives one church a message for a fixed time. Here it is:
you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:10 · World English Bible
In simple words: You will suffer for ten days. Be faithful, even if you must die, and I will give you the crown of life.
A hope after this life. “If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19) A day is coming when God will wipe away every tear. That is the day when Christ makes everything new (Revelation 21:4-5). It is not the first day of next month.
“his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22–23) These words were written in the ruins of Jerusalem. The mercy was new. The city was still in ruins.
Look at the sermons of the apostles in the book of Acts. They announce what God has done. Jesus died and rose. Sins can be forgiven. The Spirit is given. They call people to turn back to God. Not one sermon tells the hearers what the coming year will bring.
When a great sickness came before
2020 was not the first time that Christians lived through a great sickness.
About the year 252, a plague came to the city of Carthage in North Africa. A plague is a sickness that kills very many people. Some Christians there were upset, because it killed them just as it killed their neighbours who did not believe. Their bishop, Cyprian, told them that they had not understood their faith. They were acting
as if the Christian believed for this purpose, that he might have the enjoyment of the world and this life free from the contact of ills.
Cyprian, about 252
In simple words: as if a Christian believes for this reason: so that he can enjoy the world and this life, and no trouble will touch him.
In 1527, the plague came to Wittenberg. Martin Luther wrote what he would do. He would pray for protection. He would take medicine. He would be careful not to pass the sickness to others. And he would visit anyone who needed him. He wrote:
If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me.
Martin Luther, 1527
In simple words: If God wants to take me, he will certainly find me.
He prayed with courage, and he promised himself nothing.
Ten years before, Luther had ended his famous Ninety-five Theses with the same point:
Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, ‘Peace, peace,’ and there is no peace!
Martin Luther, 1517
In simple words: Send away all the prophets who say to Christ’s people, “Peace, peace”, when there is no peace.
He wrote that Christians should expect to enter heaven “through many tribulations”. In simple words: through many troubles.
The month that cannot fail
The Bible gives a test for a message that is spoken in God’s name. Does it come true? (Deuteronomy 18:22).
Now see what the monthly message does to that test. Here is a year of messages. This page made them up.
After a good month: “As we announced, the doors are opening! This month is even greater. It is your month of overflow.”
After an ordinary month: “The great change is at the door. Do not give up now. This is the month when it arrives.”
After a bad month: “Did you lose last month? Do not worry. The enemy only fights the thing that is about to be born. This month will be wonderful.”
At the end of a bad year: “Did this year disappoint you? Do not lose heart. Next year is your year of double.”
Whatever happens, the next message promises a good month.
- A good month proves the message.
- An ordinary month means that the blessing is about to arrive.
- A bad month means that the enemy is fighting it.
No month can ever count against it. And if nothing can count against a message, the message tells you nothing about the month.
What did the church say?
The church of the past did have a word for every month. Its calendar followed the life of Christ through the year. Every Sunday had its own short prayer. Here are three things that Christians have prayed and said for hundreds of years.
In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our wealth; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgement, Good Lord, deliver us.
The Litany, Book of Common Prayer (1662)
In simple words: In all our times of trouble, in all our times of riches, in the hour when we die, and on the day of judgment: good Lord, save us.
They asked God to keep them safe in good times too.
Rain and drought, fruitful and barren years … health and sickness, riches and poverty … come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
In simple words: Rain and dry weather, good harvests and bad harvests, health and sickness, riches and poverty: these do not come by accident. They come from God’s hand, and he is our Father.
It adds that we should be “patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity.” In simple words: patient in bad times, and thankful in good times.
Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
The Methodist Covenant Prayer
In simple words: Let me have plenty, or let me have nothing, as you choose.
Methodists pray this at the start of a new year.
Catechism
A small book that teaches the main points of the Christian faith with questions and answers.
The monthly message tells God’s people which kind of month is coming. The church of the past prayed through both kinds, and left the choice with God.
What is really proved?
| The claim | What the evidence shows |
|---|---|
| The New Testament never promises believers a better month or year. | Proved. Its promises are for every month. Its one forecast with a date, to a church, is ten days of trouble. |
| Jeremiah 29:11 promises Christians that this year will go well. | Not proved. It promised the prisoners a return after seventy years. The letter warned against prophets who promised a quick return. |
| Suffering is normal, so Christians should expect nothing good from God. | Not proved. The apostles taught people to pray with courage and to give thanks, and they comforted people all the time. |
| Monthly promise messages are common in most churches today. | Not certain. Studies show that many people hold the belief behind them. But nobody has counted the messages. |
- The Bible never promises a believer a better month. Its one forecast with a date is ten days of trouble, with a crown of life after it.
- What it promises, it promises every month. Christ is with you. His mercy is new tomorrow morning. Your sins are forgiven. A day is coming when every tear is wiped away.
- That word never needs to start again, because it was never tied to the month. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
Check it yourself
- Read Jeremiah 28 and 29:1-14. Fifteen minutes. Find Hananiah’s “two years” and Jeremiah’s “seventy years”.
- Read James 4:13-17 and Matthew 6:25-34. Five minutes. What may we say about tomorrow?
- Read John 16:33, Acts 14:19-22 and 1 Peter 4:12-19. Ten minutes. What did Jesus and the apostles tell believers to expect?
- Read Lamentations 3:19-26. Five minutes. Mercy that is new every morning, in a ruined city.
- Keep one monthly message. Write down what it promised. At the end of the month, read it again. Then read what the next message says about it.
The Bible words on this page come from the World English Bible. It is a modern translation, and anyone may copy it. The quick version and the full dossier use the King James Version, which is older and harder to read. The words are different, but the meaning is the same.
Want to read more?
The quick version says the same things in ordinary English and adds short exercises. The full dossier gives all the evidence and names every source.
Read the quick version → Read the full dossier →