Praying the Bible & Family Worship

Praying the Bible and Family Worship by Don Whitney are phenomenal books. I personally find myself spending a lot of time in study and pursuit of raw knowledge, which can often cause my prayer and devotional life to be neglected. Dr. Whitney's books each focus on different disciplines in the Christian life that have helped me and can help you in your spiritual walk.

In Praying the Bible Dr. Whitney introduces the Christian to the practice of praying the divinely authored words of scripture. This goes beyond slipping a verse or two into a prayer, and uses the scripture passage as the structure, or road map of the prayer. He especially emphasizes praying the Psalms, many of which were originally written as prayers. In the book he discusses his pattern of selecting daily Psalms for reading, meditation, and prayer. He divides the book of Psalms by 30 so that every day of any given month has 5 Psalms. For example, on the first day of the month, the five Psalms of the day are 1, 31, 61, 91, 121; on the 10th day of the month they are 10, 40, 70, 100, 130. After skimming the five Psalms of the day, a reader can then choose one to go more in depth with in meditation and prayer. In a month with 31 days, Dr. Whitney encourages the reader to pick a section out of the longest chapter, Psalm 119 to meditate on. Using this method, one could potentially read and pray through the whole book of Psalms 2.5 times in one year.

In Family Worship, Dr. Whitney seeks to impress on the reader the importance of daily structured worship in the home. He presents a biblical foundation showing how parents are to teach their children and emphasizing the fact that God is worthy of worship every day in our homes. He walks through church history, showing that this concept is not foreign or new, but that it was a common practice that should be revived. He argues that Family worship should at least consist of 3 things.

(1)Read, (2)Pray, (3)Sing. In the end he emphasizes God's worthiness and encourages the reader to begin the practice of family worship. From personal experience I can say that the time spent as a family reading, praying, and singing is so enjoyable and edifying. I'm not perfect; it doesn't happen every night. When it does, though, it is a gift from God. Dr. Whitney encourages the reader to not let past failures discourage faithfulness today. I recommend this book especially to men, whose job it is to be the spiritual leader of their family. Married or single, young men should read this book and resolve to lead their family well now or in the future. When recommending books to engaged couples, I always include this book.

Family Worship and Praying the Bible are very small; less than 100 pages. They both also have affordable audiobook formats read by Dr. Whitney himself in his very soothing baritone voice. They each retail for about $10 but frequently go on sale for closer to $2 on Kindle and Amazon. Don't miss out on them. They will help you practically and spiritually in your walk with the Lord.

Brandon's Score: 10/10