The Puritans said the benefits of family worship are so great they are “impossible to describe.” Nonetheless, in this series I’ll be attempting to highlight ten of its advantages.

The eighth benefit of homes gathering daily to read Scripture, sing and pray is that it Improves the nation.

You can’t straighten oaks

Individuals compose a nation. Godly individuals make good countrymen. Because family worship helps form godly individuals, it also improves the nation. A tree cannot be straightened 20 years out. So raise your saplings early at home with God’s word.

It infuses character in her citizens

Will a country not benefit when its citizens are learning daily character in the home like promptness, obedience, focus, and empathy. Won’t the streets be safer at night if the young men are at home being shaped by their fathers in prayer and Bible study? If children never learn to obey their fathers, they will struggle to submit to police, bosses and other authorities.

Remove the electricity and the country goes black. Remove the character of her righteous citizens and the state goes dark spiritually. Often a wicked nation remains afloat because of the righteous prayers of a few.

God was willing to spare Sodom for the sake of just ten righteous people (Gn. 18:32). Laban was blessed because of Jacob (30:27). Godly Joseph brought blessings to the pagan dwellings of Potiphar (39:5) and the prison master (39:23). Israel was spared God’s wrath at Taberah because of Moses’ prayers (Num. 11:2). Your community may look different if it had just a few righteous homes gathering in worship.

It offers prayer on her behalf

Second, family worship improves the nation through its prayers of blessing. Scripture commands Christians to pray for “kings and all who are in authority” (1Tm. 2:2).

What good can one godly family do in a wicked community? Abraham taught his children the word in a day when he may have been the only true believe on earth (Gn. 18:17-19). After the Flood and the Tower of Babel, there weren’t many righteous left. But God heard his prayers and godliness spread.