My newest endeavor is “worship practice” with Gabriel every day of the week. No, it’s not the same for us as family worship. That is in the evening, right before his bedtime. So he is pretty calm and quiet and happy about it.
This is morning. This is without Daddy, since he is diligently providing and working. Just my boy and me. Right now we aim for thirty minutes: singing (his faaaaaavorite part), reading Scripture, and reading a devotional. It’s good for both of us. We do it during the time when we would be at church on Sunday (although for just 1/3 the amount of time). A time of day when Gabriel has copious amounts of energy. It can be a challenge, but we are hoping that daily training in worship will have beautiful, bountiful rewards.
Although right now I simply read a short devotional out loud to act as “the sermon”, my aim is to work up to using tapes or online sermons, and work with him on sitting quietly, sitting still, and sitting joyfully for the duration. I don’t expect this to happen overnight. But we are aiming towards a goal, and hope God will bless our efforts.
I am always thankful for the words of Spurgeon in the Morning And Evening readings.
The following was the reading for this morning, and the words pierced me.
Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief!!
Numbers 14:11
“How long will it be ere they believe me?”
Strive with all diligence to keep out that monster unbelief. It so dishonors Christ, that he will withdraw his visible presence if we insult him by indulging it. It is true it is a weed, the seeds of which we can never entirely extract from the soil, but we must aim at its root with zeal and perseverance. Among hateful things it is the most to be abhorred. Its injurious nature is so venomous that he that exerciseth it and he upon whom it is exercised are both hurt thereby. In thy case, O believer! it is most wicked, for the mercies of thy Lord in the past, increase thy guilt in doubting him now. When thou dost distrust the Lord Jesus, he may well cry out, “Behold I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.” This is crowning his head with thorns of the sharpest kind. It is very cruel for a well-beloved wife to mistrust a kind and faithful husband. The sin is needless, foolish, and unwarranted. Jesus has never given the slightest ground for suspicion, and it is hard to be doubted by those to whom our conduct is uniformly affectionate and true. Jesus is the Son of the Highest, and has unbounded wealth; it is shameful to doubt Omnipotence and distrust all-sufficiency. The cattle on a thousand hills will suffice for our most hungry feeding, and the granaries of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating. If Christ were only a cistern, we might soon exhaust his fulness, but who can drain a fountain? Myriads of spirits have drawn their supplies from him, and not one of them has murmured at the scantiness of his resources. Away, then, with this lying traitor unbelief, for his only errand is to cut the bonds of communion and make us mourn an absent Saviour. Bunyan tells us that unbelief has “as many lives as a cat:” if so, let us kill one life now, and continue the work till the whole nine are gone. Down with thee, thou traitor, my heart abhors thee.