Make Time for Remembering during Family Devotions
We usually sit down with our family about once a year to remember. We do this at Thanksgiving while we’re passing the turkey and dressing. Each family member gets a chance to say something they’re thankful for from the previous year. In Christian homes, this usually yields some sort of prayer of praise, giving the Lord worship for the good things, for which, we just gave thanks.
I call this the spiritual discipline of remembering.
We tend to think of fasting, prayer, Bible study, Scripture memory, worship, evangelism, solitude, and simplicity when we think of spiritual disciplines. Well, let me throw one more out there for you: remembering.
Throughout Scripture, God’s people are called to remember. Like in Psalm 78 when the Psalmist writes, “We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.”
David embraced this call to remember the good works of God. He writes, “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for you” (Psalm 63:5-7).
Our family time of remembering should not only come once a year. We shouldn’t wait until next Thanksgiving to lead our children, the next generation, in a time of remembering; a time of praising Christ for his good works in our life. We are to meditate and reflect upon his provision, faithfulness, healing, goodness, comfort, guidance, and answered prayers, in the watches of the night so that our families will set their hope in God and not forget His miracles.
How do we do this? Well, tonight, when you sit down to eat dinner or as your putting your children into their beds, give each family member a chance to remember the goodness of God and then lead your family in a prayer of praise. Maybe your prayer will go something like this:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my
flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands” (Psalm 63:1-4).
Jonathan Williams is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries and the Senior Pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of 44 nations located in Houston, TX.
