Someone asked me recently why I bow my head and pray over my every meal. I responded, “Because I do.” When I thought about it in hindsight, I realized that the reason for praying before meals has become lost on me. I was so wrapped up in the act of praying that I forgot the very reason I do so. Then I thought to myself, “well, it’s because I am thankful, even if the food is bad….”
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:4-5)
Back in the day and age of Timothy, issues arose regarding foods that had been sacrificed to idols, and were now being offered to people for eating. For most people, this wasn’t a big deal. Sacrificing food to idols in your house was the pagan equivalent of saying grace. It was the norm to give thanks to the gods who provided the food you were going to eat in the first century. But then the Jewish people who became Christian knew better. Mostly because they knew that by offering to idols was a misplaced offering of thanks to their God who provides food for them. Imagine then, what dinner time with friends at church would look like. Pagans who converted to Christianity who gave it no thought to offer their household idols food were turning around and serving that to their Jewish friends. In response to this, the Apostle Paul says, “pray and thank God for the food, and then eat.” It’s great advice if you’re hungry and battling your conscience over where the food has been. Moreover, what Paul was writing to Timothy about was more than just the act of consecrating food that would be consumed as a gift from God. He was talking about people, places, circumstances, and opportunities that appear to come by way of idol worship and/or sacrifice to idols may in deed be God’s blessing for you if you see it that you are thankful to Him for those people, places, circumstances and opportunities. Imagine any situation where you are offered something or a situation you believe to be sub-standard, or beneath you because it is not good, or because you came upon it as a consolation prize; wouldn’t most of us would scoff at the notion and walk away? I know we would. But what if we gave thanks to God for it? Just thank God for what is presented to you as a blessing by consecrating it through a prayer of thanks. If we would receive from God with thanksgiving, everything that comes into our lives would be consecrated and set apart as a gift from God. The truth of the matter is, everything we receive with thanksgiving– relationships, gifts, circumstances, etc, are holy and instruments for God to use in our lives when we pray over them in thanksgiving.
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