Family Devotions Are Important

Twelve convincing reasons for having family devotions:

It unifies the family and sweetens home life.
It cultivates the Christian graces and relieves tension and misunderstanding that sometimes threaten the fellowship of the home.
It aids our boys and girls in becoming Christians, and helps them to develop ideals that guide them in vital Christian living.
It yields spiritual resources for daily tasks and assists us in cultivating dependence upon God.
It strengthens us in the face of adversities and disappointments and enables us to trust Christ implicitly in all of life's circumstances.
It makes us conscious during the day of the abiding presence of our Savior and Frie nd.
It bears a Christian witness to the guests in our home.
It undergirds the Christian teaching of the Sunday School and the ministry of the church.
It affords opportunity for the Christian family to pray for and to sharpen its concern for non-Christian families.
It helps us to give a right place to spiritual values and saves us from an undue concern for the temporal things of life.
It encourages us to put Christianity into practice in our homes.
It honors God and provides an excellent outlet for the expression of our gratitude for the abundance of daily mercies and blessings which come from Him.

Power in the Word

Psa 119:89 Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Isa 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.


A highwayman once stopped John Wesley and demanded his money or his life. Wesley, after giving him the money, said, "Let me speak one word to you; the time may come when you will regret the course of life in which you are now engaged. Remember this, 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.'" No more was said, and they parted. Many years after, as Wesley was going out of a church in which he had been preaching, a stranger introduced himself, and asked Wesley if he remembered being waylaid at such a time. He said he recollected it. "I was that man," said the stranger, "and that single verse you quoted on that occasion was the means of a total change in my life and habits. I have long since been in the practice of attending the house of God and of giving attention to His Word, and trust that I am a Christian."

Learning to Trust

2Sa 22:3 The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my savior; thou savest me from violence.

Psa 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Psa 34:22 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Ps 37:5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

Pr 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

2Co 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us .....

"Dear God, what am I supposed to do?" asked missionary Marge Elam. "I am so worried for my little girl. I am not able to hover over her to protect her."
"The night was warm and quite dark. I could hear several alligators not far from the house calling back and forth in their strange creaky way. Nightbirds, frogs and other night creatures added their sounds as a background to my prayer. I soundlessly left my bed and felt my way to the hammock where my eight-year-old slept.
"'Lord, she has to ride her bicycle alone two miles through the jungle to go to school. There are many wild things out there, and always snakes.'
"While looking down at the faint outline of my sleeping child with her small white face pillowed on her bent arm, a memory went across my mind. It was the other day: her eyes were large with excitement, her voice almost squeaked, 'Mom, it was the biggest, fattest snake. Its body stretched all the way across the road. I did not know what to do, so I just pulled up my legs and rode my bike over it.'"
"I could actually hear the thump of my own heart in the darkness. Then, I heard a voice. It almost seemed to come out of the darkness, but I knew it was inside of me. He said, 'I was able to take care of your daughter in the United States, and I am able to take care of her here as well.'After that, I was able to sleep the night through and every night since for 17 years. I knew that if He was able to take care of one eight-year-old girl, He was able to take care of everything else."

DIFFICULT TIMES

Difficult times

There is a legend about a grandfather clock that stood in a corner for three generations, faithfully ticking off the minutes, hours and days-its means of operation was a heavy weight suspended by a double chain. One of its new owners, believing that an old clock should not bear such a load, released the weight. Immediately the ticking stopped. According to the legend, the clock asked, "Why did you do that?" The owner replied, "I wanted to lighten your burden." "Please put my weight back," replied the clock. "That is what keeps me going."

Gen 26:1-3 “And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father...”


There was a famine in the land, the very land that God took Abram to, from Ur of the Chaldeans. Isaac was in the will of God likewise Abraham yet there was famine in the land where the Lord located them. Most people presume that problems only come when someone is not in the will of God. They claim that when one is in the will of God everything will work out. Absence of problems does not mean the Lord is pleased neither is presence of problems a sign of God's disfavor. Isaac experienced famine in Canaan (lack of productivity, dryness, no rain, no water, loss of cattle etc. God did not stop the famine from coming but He had directions for next step Isaac was to take.

When situations look difficult and your promised land of milk and honey has become patched do not keep blaming yourself seek the Lord's face and He will direct you. The Lord instructed Isaac not to go to Egypt but to dwell in the land. Let's avoid always running to unbelievers every time we face difficulty in our place of assignment. Do not look back or begin to grumble against God. The Lord's plan towards you is to give you a hope and a future. In this time of global recession let us look to the Lord and trust in His love. Do not run up and down and loose your peace. Jesus said,'My peace I give unto you” Shalom!

God is faithful!

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Jenny Lind, the sweet singer of Stockholm, of whom many has written and commended the wonderful quality of her voice and the charm of the songs she sang. But very few people realize that she owed voice and her songs to the school of suffering and sorrow as to the academy where her powers were developed. Her childhood was full of sadness.

The woman with whom she lived locked her in her room each day when she went to work; the only means the child found of spending the long hours was to sit by the window and sing to herself. One day a music teacher in the city passing by heard the voice of the unseen singer and detected its possibilities. He called a friend to his side, and together they listened to the wonderful voice within. They got in touch with the child's guardian and made arrangements for the lonely and almost friendless girl to be given her chance.

There were many difficulties to be overcome, but step by step she mounted the ladder of fame. She astounded London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and New York. Some say there never was such a voice, trilling like the thrush, pure as the note of the lark. But those who knew her best realized how the sorrows of her childhood gave a richness and depth to her song that otherwise would have been unattainable.

She herself once wrote:
In vain I seek for rest
In all crees me cry for God.
And safe at rest I cannot be
Until my heart finds rest in Thee.

Never for a moment think that the Lord is unaware of what you are going through. Help is on the way. Heb 13:5 “Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye have: for himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee.”

GOING DEEPER

A small company in the early days of gold mining in South Africa sank shaft after shaft in different locations, finding only a small amount of gold in each shaft. Ultimately, the prospectors discovered that all they needed to have done was to go deeper in the first shaft for, as they did so, they found gold in abundance.

Roy Hession writes that he has found this to be true in the spiritual life also.
"I testify that although I have tried all sorts of different shafts, hoping for greater results in my life, Christ has now become the end of all my searching. Revival for me has meant coming back to the place where I first began, and I intend to stay there. Tell me not of any other way. I need to go deeper at His cross-much deeper."

The way out is to get deeper into God. When Jesus faced possible betrayal and death, he did not take refuge in alcohol men or women, the Bible tells us he withdrew to the Mount of Olives to spend time alone with God. There he received the help needed to face the troubles ahead. Why not try going deeper.
Luke 22:40-46” And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was parted from them about a stone's cast; and he kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground. And when he rose up from his prayer, he came unto the disciples, and found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.

THE WISDOM OF GOD

A piece of wood once bitterly complained because it was being cut and filled with rifts and holes. But he who held the wood and whose knife was cutting into it so remorselessly, did not listen to the sore complaining. He was making a flute out of the wood he held, and was too wise to desist for such an entreaty.
Instead, the flute carver said, "Oh, thou foolish piece of wood, without these rifts and holes thou wouldst be only a mere stick forever-a bit of hard black ebony with no power to make music or to be of any use. These rifts that I am making will change thee into a flute, and thy sweet music then shall charm the souls of men. My cutting is the making of thee, for then thou shalt be precious and valuable and a blessing to the world."
In 1Co 1:25 the Bible says, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” Even when you do not understand why; trust in the foolishness of God which is greater than your wisdom. He knows what He is doing. He is skilled and experienced and has been around longer than everyone and everything you can see.

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