Looking Back: Our Year of Following Jesus
Month 12: On Mission & Finishing Well · Family Worship
Today's Scripture
Read together: Psalm 78:4-7
4 We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed. 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the coming generation would know them— even children yet to be born— to arise and tell their own children 7 that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.
Memory Verse
“And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.””— Revelation 21:5 (BSB)memorize this week
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Revelation 1–3
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Around Day 359 of 365 — Jesus walks among His churches.)The Heart of It
We are almost at the end of a whole year together with God's Word. And tells us exactly what to do with a year like this one. Don't hide it. Tell it. The psalmist says we will not hide these truths from our children. Instead we will "declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed." This is what a family altar is for. Year after year, the great deeds of God are handed down at the table, from older mouths to younger ears, so that the next generation will "put their confidence in God."
So tonight we look back. Remember how the year began. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And remember where it has carried us. We came through the cross and the empty tomb. We saw the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. We watched the church carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. None of that was just information to learn. God was building something in us, the way He has built faith in family after family for thousands of years. The point of remembering is not nostalgia. It is hope. We tell the old story so that little hearts will fix their trust on the God who never changes, never fails, and never forgets His people.
Around the Table
This year we learned so much about how big and good God is! He loves to be remembered and talked about.
Let's do it: Shout out your favorite Bible story from this whole year. Then thank God for it!
says we should tell about God's wonderful works to the next people who come after us. That's a job for our family.
Let's talk: What's one thing about God you learned this year that you never want to forget?
Remembering on purpose is a spiritual habit. It guards us from drifting, and it feeds our hope ().
Let's go deeper: How could keeping a journal, or a list of answered prayers, help you "put your confidence in God" in the years to come?
💬 Conversation Starter
If you made a scrapbook of this past year with God, what is the first picture you would put on the very first page?
🛡️ Defending the Faith
The faith has survived two thousand years, not as a legend, but as a remembered history. It was carefully passed down by families and eyewitnesses who staked their lives on it (; ). A made-up tale dies in a generation. But the true acts of God are still being told at our table tonight.
For Dad · Go Deeper
You have spent a year doing the most important work a father can do. And on the days it felt clumsy or rushed, it still counted. and both put discipleship squarely in the home, "when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way." Tonight, resist the urge to grade your own performance. The God who carried you also did the building. Your faithfulness was the soil, but He gave the growth (). Take a moment to thank Him for one child by name, and for one way you saw His Spirit at work in them this year. Finishing well starts with remembering well.
Draws on: Paul Tripp, Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You for a whole year of Your Word in our home. Help us never to hide the wonderful things You have done. Help us tell them to each other, and to our children. And keep our hope fixed on You. In Jesus' name, amen."
Remember out loud. The God who has been faithful all year is the God we trust for all the years ahead.