A few years ago I argued with a friend of mine over saying grace prior to eating a meal. In his opinion this act, at best, is nothing more than old meaningless tradition. At worst it is an antiquated way of puffing oneself up. While I may agree with his diagnosis of how many in the church treat this act, I disagree with “throwing the baby out with the bath water”. In my opinion I think he was just trying to justify his forgetfulness and laziness, at best.
So should we pray before we eat our meals? Absolutely! We are actually commanded to do this.
Deuteronomy 8:10-18
In verse 10 we see the commandment.
The remaining verses focus on the very likely possibility of becoming prideful over our provisions, as if we had anything to do with them.
From these verses it’s interesting to note that one verse is the commandment, but 8 verses on the downward spiral of disobedience and pride (i.e. sin).
Acts 27
Acts 27:33-38 actually focuses on this act of praising God for His provisions. From reading these verses we can see how Paul praising God for the food is:
An act of leadership. Even though Paul was the prisoner and the Roman centurion was the one person in command, it was Paul who actually took charge and obviously the one person God was working through. God gave Paul command of that ship.
Garnered respect. Through his consistent and well known relationship with Jesus Christ, Paul’s act of praising God was viewed, by the unbelievers, as consistent with his beliefs. Also the fact that Paul was doing this after 14 days without food and under constant stress, as well as the fear of death (at least until the angel appeared to him) showed validity for his beliefs to these same unbelievers.
A powerful witness and an act of encouragement. At the very least everyone on the boat believed Paul was in touch with his god, even if this god wasn’t their own.
I believed I’ve touched on this subject in a previous article, however, I feel it’s important, even if we’ve relegated this practice of praising God for our food to a dead tradition. So openly praise God for His provisions and let others see your light. Even if your head is bowed in silence, people will typically know what you're doing and trust me they're watching.
4 comments:
hey Bill, this doesn't need posting, but I believe you meant "diagnosis" as opposed to "prognosis". The grammar police also informed me of your infraction of the then/than option a couple sentences earlier. Heh heh... Solid stance on this subject btw. I totally agree.
- G
Thanks for the grammer correction Greg.
I remember that conversation! :) I wouldn't say that I said praying before meals is a "meaningless" tradition. If I did than those weren't the words I meant to use. I can't argue that it isn't a good practice with respect to expressing gratitude for God's provisions and showing that publicly as well. This is definately supported by the Bible and should extend beyond meals. If the only way I'm showing Christ to others is by praying before I eat than I would be worried. Non believers pray before meals. It's still a ritual none -the -less and like any ritual, it should never become just a ritual. My point was that for a lot Christians it really is just a ritual most of the time in which the exact phrases are repeated without any thought. ..yet we feel guilty if we forget to say it, or maybe don't want to look less holy in front of our Christian friends. Is this genuine prayer? Not to me.. :) Sorry to be the rebel here on this topic! Just stirring the coals!
The Pat Attack!
Pat,
Thanks for the added commentary on your side of that argument. Keep stirring it up cause if no one stirs it up then what do we have left to talk about? Women? Glad to have you in these discussions bro.
Bill
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