We hope this simple guide to family worship - updated weekly - will lead your family to engage in this life changing practice.
What A Friend We Have In Jesus
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PSALM OF THE MONTH
Family Worship Guide week of May 4, 2008
Question: What are God’s works of providence?
Answer: God’s works of providence are, His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, and all their actions.
Opening Prayer: Ask God to help you to see His hand in all your activities today (Psalm 104:24).
Hymns/Songs: “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” T.H. #119; “My God is Big!”; “For the Beauty of the Earth” T.H. #116.
Bible Verses: Psalm 103:19; 145:17, Isaiah 28:29; Matthew 10:29-31; Hebrews 1:3.
Related Questions:
(1) Discuss the meaning of these words by the use of a dictionary: preserving, governing, and providence.
(2) How does God work to care for His creation? God cares and controls all He has created, in an all-powerful and all-wise (all-knowing) way.
Bible Lesson: “God Meant It For Good” (Genesis 45:3—8; 50:19)
(1) Review the story of Joseph quickly, explaining how God protected Joseph even in times of great pain. After God made Joseph second only to Pharaoh, there was a great famine in the land and his family came searching for food.
(2) In Genesis 45:3—8, when Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, they were terrified. Explain how Joseph gives glory to God even though he was sold into slavery and suffered in Egypt as a slave and prisoner. Joseph saw that his brothers had had an evil motive for what they did, but it was for the lasting good of Israel. Joseph needed to be in Egypt and rise to a place of great authority in order to preserve his family.
(3) Joseph’s brothers meant to do evil to him. How did God mean it for good (Genesis 50:19)? God rules and overrules in the affairs of men so that His will is accomplished.
Closing Prayer: (Note: Have members of your family share how God has used something that looked like a failure or tragedy and turned it into a good thing.) “Thank You Father that You can take all things in our lives and make them good. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
GOD'S WORD AND FAMILY WORSHIP
"These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons ... ." (Deut. 6:6-7a; Eph. 5:25, 26; 6:4)
"God is to be worshipped everywhere, in spirit and truth, as, in private families daily, and in secret, each one by himself; so, more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God, by His Word or providence, calleth thereunto" (Westminster Confession of Faith: XXI. 6).
The Joy and Duty of Family Worship
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God commands family worship. The Christian father leading his family in biblical instruction and prayer in the home is a non-negotiable. And like all of God’s commandments, there is great joy and delight in obeying them. Family worship is both a joy and a duty for the Christian family.
We have evidence of family worship dating back to the time of Abraham. For in Genesis 18:19 God says, “For I have chosen him [Abraham], so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” Furthermore, in Exodus we learn that God required fathers to teach their children the meaning of the Passover (12:23-27). Again in Deuteronomy, prior to the people of Israel entering the Promised Land of Canaan, we see family worship commanded when Moses reminds the people of their covenant responsibility before God to “diligently” teach their children the Scriptures. He states the familiar words, “Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead."
Throughout the centuries we can find much evidence of God’s people taking seriously the biblical mandate of family worship. Our own confession takes for granted the practice of family worship by stating that:
“God is to be worshipped everywhere, in spirit and truth, as, in private families daily, and in secret, each one by himself; so, more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God, by His Word or providence, calleth thereunto” (WCF (1647): XXI. 6).
Notice the threefold approach to worship: Family, private, and public. Unfortunately, it is family worship that is most neglected in present day evangelicalism (Though it must be said: private and public worship are also slowly becoming ‘unnecessary burdens’ to many who just want the casual, entertaining, and convenient approach to the faith … an approach unfamiliar to biblical Christianity).
The consequences of family worship, I believe, aside from bringing glory to God, are godlier fathers, mothers, children, families, churches, communities, and nations. For there is something undeniably powerful about parents reading and teaching the Scriptures to their children while on a daily basis modeling lives of dependence upon God through Christ. Just think of the spiritual impact we can have if day after day, for eighteen years, our children hear and read God’s Word and see it lived out before them. I think sometimes we mix up our children (and entire families) by telling them that God and His Word are of utter and primary importance in our lives when we only speak of Him or worship Him one hour, or so, a week. By Rev. Jon Payne Grace Church (PCA)
