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Family Devotions
What were your initial feelings when you read the title of this brochure? Guilt - because you know you should have them but don’t? Frustration - because you don’t know how to conduct them or make them interesting for the whole family? Aversion - because you don’t want to look like a religious fanatic? Read on!
The nature of devotions
The word "devotion" comes from a Latin Word which means "to vow." Now when you think of a vow, don’t you think of displaying a strong attachment to someone or something? Your home "de-vow-tions", then, should really be perceived as sanctified actions in which you daily strengthen your conviction to live for Christ, and Christ reminds you of his loving and saving commitment to you!
The daily devotion kindles relationships. It is not only a time of learning, but even more, an experience which nurtures and surrounds souls with God’s love for us.
Does your devotion challenge you?
A devotion will generate the most interest and spiritual growth when it challenges your biblical knowledge and sanctified living. We will want to use different types of devotional materials, depending on where we are in our knowledge and life for Christ. From time to time we will change these materials to challenge our advancing spiritual maturity.
Obviously Bible reading will be the core of devotional life. I am not advocating that people read the bible from cover to cover as a novel. There are different levels of difficulty among the biblical books. For example, it’s very hard to digest the book of Hebrews without a solid grasp of Exodus 25-40. I’d much rather encourage reading historical books like Genesis, Exodus, Samuel and Matthew several times before getting into more challenging material such as the prophets. To add a little variety, insert the reading of a New Testament epistle between historical reading.
This varied approach can nurture the growth of doctrinal comprehension and of sanctified living. Spiritual principles which you glean from the epistles are reinforced by the true-life stories you read in the historical books.
Discuss the devotion
Exploring the reading allows it to become "inwardly digested." Pointed questions by the devotion leader help everyone to make applications. A book like "Little Visits With God" can serve as a pattern for you to imitate.
If you have young children read portions of Scripture or a meditation several times in the course of a month. Youngsters like to hear and see things with which they are familiar. You’ll notice that repeating some of the same stories and the same accompanying questions allows them to absorb the truths.
When adolescents are in your family, you can use the devotion as an excellent springboard for discussing practical topics for which youth are seeking answers. For instance, consider how Genesis 2 could allow you to discuss God’s gift and good intent for our sexuality and how sin has corrupted that. A devotional leader who takes a couple of minutes to prepare can find many applications which make the Bible alive for the maturing youth.
Updated Catechisms have included graphs and pictures. It is a shame that this book has been relegated to confirmation classes. Read the preface and be reminded that Martin Luther had intended it for use by the heads of houses, not merely by pastors for confirmation class. You need not use the Catechism for every devotion, but to ignore it totally is losing a valuable tool!
Add music. Maybe our churches lack gusto in singing because our people don’t sing any spiritual songs at home! We relegate hymns and spiritual singing to church and the rest of the week fill our hearts with the world’s songs of broken love, suffering and life’s problems. Put some spiritual songs into your soul each day. Use your piano. Use your guitar. Use your stereo. Let your soul breathe in a little refreshing music amidst the smog of sensual and worldly songs that fog up our air waves. As that melody and those lyrics float around in your thoughts, they’ll keep reminding you of your Lord!
Pray. It would seem rather odd not to respond to God after hearing his Word. In that prayerful response, expand the horizons for what you pray. You can ultimately generalize all petitions and Thanksgivings into three basic categories: home (yourself, family, property, relatives, neighbors), church (all that you associate with God’s kingdom), and state (our legislative bodies and everything they oversee). Explore these three categories throughout the day, especially when you are sitting around and waiting somewhere. You will soon realize the vast amount of things for which you can pray!
When? When? When?
I’m an advocate of having several devotions in a day, not just one long one, especially if you have youngsters who can’t sit still for fifteen or more minutes. Try short devotions after every meal! Perhaps after one meal you might read a short mediation, after another you could read a chapter from Scripture, and after another you could respond to God in prayer, singing or psalm reading. Once you make those extra five minutes a part of your time plan for meals, you’ll notice how much you can achieve spiritually. It certainly is better than claiming you can never scrape together fifteen or twenty minutes for a family devotion!
But who said devotions have to have the whole family present? Husbands and wives, what an opportunity you may have to tackle more advanced devotional material together at bedtime. Parent(s), why can’t you insert the reading of a Bible story to your youngster while reading other books at bedtime? Teenager, if you feel the family devotions are not giving you all you need, what digging and praying are you doing to supplement what the family devotion discussed?
When your devotional life challenges you, has freshness and variety, incorporates God-to-man and man-to-God elements, and provides for thoughtful reflection and rededication to God, then your devotion is truly taking on the nature of a de-vow-tion. Then commitment and love are rejuvenated!
Something to think about
- List some excuses people offer for not having daily family devotions.
- How could you incorporate Sunday’s sermon ore readings into devotions?
- What audio visual aids might be useful in your devotions (Advent wreath, maps, songs, etc.)? What impact do they have? Why don’t we use them more often?
- Write down one petition/thanksgiving each for home, church and state.
- What devotional materials have you found stimulating? How well are you acquainted with what Northwestern Publishing House offers?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for your countless daily blessings. May we draw closer to you through our family devotions. Be with us as we study your Word, that we may grow in our knowledge of Christ and in our ability to live for him who gave his life for us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Family of God series is copyright © 1985 Northwestern Publishing House. and is published under the auspices of PACE (Partners Advancing Christian Education), Wisconsin Lutheran High School Conference, Milwaukee, WI. Reprinted by permission.
Northwestern Publishing House
1250 N 113th Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA 53226-3284
Phone: 1-800-662-6022
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