Family Worship in the New Year
James T. Lima
As we draw near to the beginning of 2024, I assume at least some of you have given thought to your “New Year’s resolutions.” In general, I’m not a huge fan of the heaps of guilt one can have piled on in this season to will yourself to “be a better person.” However, New Year's resolutions aren’t altogether a bad thing. It was a practice for many Puritans to regularly (even daily) examine their hearts and lives to ask God to bring to light sin so that they could confess it, turn from it, look to Christ for forgiveness, and seek to walk in new obedience in the power of the Spirit. This is essentially what David is doing in Psalm 139:23-24 when he prays, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” He is asking God to bring to light any sin in his heart, mind, or life. Perhaps we would be well served to examine our hearts and lives more regularly than merely at the end of the year. And yet, as we approach the new year, this is as good a time as any to spend time in self-examination and even to consider if there are any beneficial habits you could begin.
That being said, I thought I would take a moment to commend two habits to consider implementing—family worship and personal worship. In the history of our tradition, worship has often been separated into three spheres—public worship (the corporate gathering of the church), family worship, and personal (sometimes called “secret”) worship. Of these three, public worship takes the primary role and ought to be the first priority of Christians and Christian families. However, family and personal worship play a vital role alongside public worship in our growth and the growth of our children. For those of you who are married and/or have children in the home, here is a fantastic article giving simple steps to starting family worship. I love how he boils it down to very simple and attainable practices. If you’re looking for more help in this area, I highly recommend the little book A Neglected Grace by Jason Helopoulos. And for all of us, whether empty-nesters, single, married with or without kids, young, or old, consider ways you can pursue personal worship through time meditating on the Word of God and in prayer. As a help in that area, here is a short article about the practice of meditation on Scripture.
Whenever we take time to examine our own lives and our spiritual habits, we are bound to see our own failures, weaknesses, and sin. So I want to end by shifting your gaze so that your motivation for change is more than mere guilt and shame. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a 19th century Scottish preacher known for his pursuit and encouragement of personal practices of Bible meditation and prayer, once wrote, “Learn much of your own heart; and when you have learned all you can, remember you have seen but a few yards into a pit that is unfathomable.” But even as he encourages self-examination, he then commends something greater, “Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief!” Let us pursue spiritual habits such as family and personal worship, not to dampen our guilt through self-improvement, but from the freedom knowing that our guilt has been taken away by the grace of our God in Jesus Christ and with a desire to fix our eyes more and more upon our Savior!
