Devotional / Family Worship; December 17, 2025

What is family worship? (Click the arrow to the left)

As Christians, particularly Christian men, we are responsible to lead our households with strength and resolve in the ways of Christ. Leading our families in devotions and family worship is one way to lead our families, raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Jesus Christ (cf. Deuteronomy 6:7; Ephesians 6:4).

In my house, we do morning and evenings. In the morning after we eat breakfast together, we all have our quiet times. We read our Bibles seperately and journal what we see. In the evenings before bed, we talk about what we saw in our morning Bible reading, I share my insight from my own devotional time, we ask questions from the New City Catechism, we sing a couple worship songs together, and then we pray as a family. Family worship doesn’t have to look like this. It may look different for every household, but I want to invite you to join me in leading our families well. Every weekday on this blog, I want to provide a guide for fathers to lead their families in some form of family worship. If your household doesn’t have a father, I believe the responsibility falls to the mother. Design a routine that works for your family, but be intentional about leading in the only way that matters instead of getting too caught up with the affairs of this world. Every Christian man is the pastor of his home. I believe the most important thing we can do for our children is (1) lead them in the home and (2) be faithful to the church as a family. As the family goes, so goes the nation. Our job as pastors to our family matters.

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Isaiah 52:13-15

13 Behold, My servant will prosper, 

He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. 

14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people, 

So His appearance was marred more than any man 

And His form more than the sons of men. 

15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations, 

Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; 

For what had not been told them they will see, 

And what they had not heard they will understand. 

Previously, God issued a challenge to other so-called gods to prove their existence by accurately predicting the future, and they could not. In that context, Yahweh took up His own challenge and predicted the coming of His servant. Here, in Isaiah 52, God continues to foretell about His servant.

• He will be successful.
• He would be raised up.
• He would be disfigured.
• In His disfiguration, He would sprinkle many nations.
• The eyes of the whole world will be on Him.

700 years before Jesus’s birth, God told of His crucifixion. Isaiah couldn’t have predicted the Roman incursion, let alone their tendency to raise people up on crosses, disfigure them, and put them on public display. Yet, Isaiah predicted it perfectly. The eyes of the world are still on Jesus of Nazareth.

Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled even by atheists who can’t seem to even stop thinking and talking about Jesus. Isaiah was right again. Through Isaiah, God told us that His servant, Jesus, would sprinkle many nations. What would He sprinkle many nations with? His own atoning blood. Salvation in Christ was always God’s plan for the nations. Christmas… Christmas is about revival.

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Today’s question from the New City Catechism:

Q- What is the Lord’s prayer?

A- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Matthew 6:9 says,

9 “Pray, then, in this way: 

‘Our Father who is in heaven, 

Hallowed be Your name…

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