Do you pray before a meal? What do you say? Many of us were taught a specific prayer as a child that goes through our head, if not our mouth, as we sit down to eat. The prayer usually has some form of blessing the meal. But, as RVL has said, “what’s wrong with the food?”
In following our series on the power of carefully choosing words, we need to add this to the list to examine what we are communicating. There isn’t an example of blessing inanimate objects in the Bible. What we see is blessing God FOR the object. God made the food. He provides for us. And we thank Him, which is one of the meanings of bless – to give Him credit. So we bless God for our meal.
We bless people and we bless God, but when our words suggest blessing things we run on rocky terrain. What does blessing an object imply? Does it make it holy? Safe? Clean? Was there something wrong with our food that needed fixing before we ate it? Something that needed blessing?
Let’s let our words matter and give credit to God and bless HIM for our food. It will remind me, and those around me, of His great provision.
And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Deuteronomy 8:10
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