Why Should You Pray Before You Eat?
By Laurel Head
How many times have you stopped yourself before eating a meal and given thanks to God? How often have you completely forgotten and eaten a few bites and then remembered to say a prayer? I am going to go into detail about why we should thank God for our food and why most of the time it shouldn’t just be a simple “Dear Father, Thank you for this food, In Jesus Name, Amen.”
First of all, Jesus gave thanks. Matthew 14:19-21 states that before Jesus fed the 5,000, he “commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.” Another passage, Matthew 15:34-36 says the same thing. Luke 22:14-22 and Luke 24:30 are also accounts of Jesus blessing the food. However, I would like to look more closely at what Jesus did in these four accounts. In Matthew 14:19, Jesus blessed it (eulogeo). In Matthew 15:36, he gave thanks (eucharisteo). In Luke 22:17,19, Jesus gave thanks (eucharisteo). In Luke 24:30, Jesus blessed it (eulogeo). The word eulogeo is used to praise, invoke blessings, and to consecrate a thing with solemn prayers.The word eucharisteo is used to be grateful for, feel thankful, and to give thanks. Pray/prayer is very rarely, if at all, used in the New Testament as an act before a meal. Rather, the words “gave thanks” and “blessed it” are the words used to describe the act that Jesus and other apostles did before a meal. This shows that sometimes, a short prayer was given to give thanks for a meal, but oftentimes, a longer more solemn prayer was given to praise, invoke blessings, give thanks, and to consecrate the meal.
Secondly, God created everything, including ourselves. When we stop and thank him for the food and praise him for everything he has done for us, we are acknowledging that he is the originator of everything; everything comes from him. This means that we stop at least twice a day, and recognize who created the world and everything in it. By maintaining a constant sense of thankfulness, praise, and gratitude to/for our Creator, a Christian will have an optimistic attitude about most everything that comes their way by understanding the awesome power of God and the knowledge that God will/has triumphed over everything. Here are some verses that show how our attitude should be towards God.
Psalm 121:2 - “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 139:14 - “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
Jeremiah 32:17 - “Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:”
Psalm 100:1-5 - “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”
2 Kings 19:15 - “And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.”
Lastly, we should pray before we eat in order to take a few minutes a day to not focus on worldly things and have a kind of “check” to our day. It can be a pause in whatever is crazy and tumultuous around us to help us bring our focus back to the One who has everything in control. If you failed an exam, did horrible on a sports evaluation, homework assignments are piling up left and right, you have work most days of the week, and you’re not getting enough sleep; it might seem like your world is falling apart. But a simple prayer before a meal, that would normally take you less than a minute, can take over five minutes because you are pouring your heart out to God in prayer and letting your mind rest in the assurance that everything will be taken care of in its own time; instead of working yourself up over everything.
In conclusion, the simple act of praying before a meal can reestablish our faith and assurance in God, help us to model Jesus’ example of giving thanks and blessing meals, and acknowledge the Creator and Sustainer of everything in this world. For most people, “saying grace” is a small, routine thing that is a tradition; however, for Christians, giving thanks before a meal should be an act that we do whenever we get the chance to because it helps to strengthen our relationship with God and it helps us grow in our Christian lives.