MamaArcher's Blog

Prayer and Family Worship

In the last post, I left you with a list of  things to ponder.  Ways in which we can bring the gospel of Christ to our children.  In the next couple of posts will touch on those.  I will continue to reference the booklet Bringing the Gospel to Covenant Children: In Dependency on the Spirit by Joel R. Beeke.

• Prayer

How should we pray for our children?  We should be praying for them in a habitual way.  Set a specific time aside to pray for them but also be spontaneous and pray for them whenever the need arises.  Pray also for them covenantally, specifically, and earnestly.

I would like to share a few quotes with you about praying for our children.

“A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.  Thomas Brooks.

“You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you can’t do more than pray until after you have prayed.” John Bunyan

“O Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, give us a seed right with Thee!  Smite us and our house with everlasting barrenness rather than that our seed should not be right with Thee.  O God, give us our children.  Give us our children. A second time, and by a far better birth, give us our children to be beside us in Thy holy covenant.  For it had been better we had never been betrothed; it had been better we had sat all our days solitary unless our children are to be right with Thee…..But thou, O God, art Thyself a Father, and thus hast in Thyself a Father’s heart.  Hear us, then, for our children, O our Father…..In season and out of season, we shall not go up into our bed, we shall not give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eyelids till we and all our seed are right with Thee.”  Alexander Whyte

• Family Worship

Beeke mentions four aspects that should be included in family worship and also gives some very practical ideas on incorporating those four aspects.  They are as follows:

1. Scripture reading
2. Biblical instruction
3. Prayer
4. Singing

Let your family worship be regular and sincere.  As Richard Cecil said, “Let family worship be short, savory, simple, tender, heavenly.”  God requires such family worship, the Lord Jesus is worthy of it, Scripture demands it, conscience approves it, and children profit from it.