Family worship is so 'out of date' that many hear of it and what it may entail and quickly think that you are still living in the 17th century Puritan era.But I think that the principle of FAMILY WORSHIP ought to be regularly practiced by all Christian households.
John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, wrote:
Dear brethren, if you look for a life to come, of necessity it is that you exercise yourselves in the book of the Lord your God. Let no day slip or want some comfort received from the mouth of God.
Open your ears, and he will speak even pleasant things to your heart. Close not your eyes, but diligently let them behold what portion of substance is left to you within your Father’s testament. Let your tongues learn to praise the gracious goodness of him, whose mere mercy has called you from darkness to life. Neither yet may you do this so quietly that you admit no witness. No, Brethren, you are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word.
Within your houses, I say, in some cases, you are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your bishopric and charge. Of you it shall be required how carefully and diligently you have instructed them in God’s true knowledge, how you have studied to plant virtue in them, and [to] repress vice. And therefore I say, you must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least.
But above all things, dear brethren, study to practice in life that which the Lord commands, and then be you assured that you shall never hear nor read the same without fruit. And this much for the exercises within your homes.
I would call each man to examine himself in his leadership in the home with the following heart-searching questions:
1) Do you feed your own soul daily with the food of God's Word?
2) Do you passionately pursue and tenaciously frequent the secret closet of prayer to God?
3) Do you shepherd your wife & children in the Word of God, the ways of God, prayers to God, and catechism? If so, how?
4) Do you feel confused and unable to perform this spiritual practice?
Let me help by proffering a few suggestions:
Read — Open the Bible with the entire family together and read a portion of it.
Sing — Sing a hymn and teach the family a verse/stanza of solid theology.
Pray — You as the head of the household pray for the family (or, go around and ask each member of the family to pray)
Catechize — Go through a catechism and teach yourself, your spouse, and your children solid theology.
