Call to Worship December 15, 2024
“Fifthly, There are several kinds of prayer. I shall speak a word to these three, [instantaneous], secret, and family…
3. Family prayer. God must be worshiped in our families, as well as in our closets.
(1.) God commands it, in so far as he requires every kind of prayer, Ephesians 6:18, ‘Praying always with all prayer.’ The scripture speaks of a church in Aquila’s house, Romans 16:5. Surely the family was not such a one that shut God out of doors. The family sacrifice was God’s ordinance, Exodus 12:21, ‘Draw out, and take you a lamb, according to your families, and kill the Passover.’
(2.) It was the practice of Christ, Matthew 26:30, John 17 and of the saints, as Job, chapter 1:5, Joshua, chapter 24:15, and Cornelius, Acts 10:2. Elisha prayed with his servant, 2 Kings 4:33.
(3.) The master of the family has the charge of the souls under his roof; and surely the case of a family requires family prayer. Are there not family wants, sins, and mercies, that require such an exercise?
O what a heavy vengeance abides families that are without the worship of God! Jeremiah 10:25, ‘Pour out your fury upon the heathen that know you not, and upon the families that call not on your name.’ That house that is not sanctified by prayer, is like to be the house of the wicked, where God’s curse is. How will you answer for the souls committed to your charge, who do not pray in your families? No wonder godly persons should scare at your family; though indeed it is to be lamented, that many professors like Jonah will flee from the presence of the Lord, out of a praying family to a prayerless one; whom a storm sometimes pursues.” (Thomas Boston, Discourses on Prayer)