God's Neat, Let's Eat?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
Scripture encourages us to examine our hearts and motives on a constant basis. We are born with a wicked heart that must be in constant check with the Word of God. Recently, I have had a problem with the content of prayers at meal time in our family.
   
Growing up, before my family started attending church, we said a prayer before each meal. You could call it tradition or habit. As a result, this routine, token prayer time has been rooted in our family even before we were Christians. Because of my parent's Catholic background, many times we recited the Lord's Prayer. In Christianity, praying before meals or saying grace is a household staple. But just over the last few years I have noticed prayers at meal time were getting out of whack. Like everything else, I wanted to make sure this was honoring God.
 
For example, when I met a fellow pastor for lunch at McDonalds we both ordered off the value menu. After we sat down the prayer went like this, "Lord, I pray a blessing on the food we are about to receive. I ask you to let it be nourishment to our bodies. Bless everything we do. In Jesus name, Amen." Nothing unusual, I had prayed the same prayer before 100 times. But sitting in front of me was a sandwich, fries and a large soda. An 1800 calorie meal that I know is not a healthy meal to eat. Did I expect God to magically remove the calories from this Big Mac and make it into a low fat, nutritious, Weight Watchers product? Did I need to baptize my fries in ketchup to make sure they are blessed? This is when I realized that what I was doing was wrong.
 
Giving the blessing is not about blessing the food, but offering thanks. I peeked at a few scriptures to see where we base this practice. I would say it started with the feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus gave a blessing that was not directed at the bread and fish, but to God. Secondly, in Matthew 26:26 KJV, this verse spurs on the belief that the food needed a blessing because some translations read, "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed (it), and brake (it), and gave (it) to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.'" Now read the verse again without all of the "its." It reads a little differently. Some versions leave the (it) out and the verse makes more sense. Also notice that they were already eating when Jesus offered thanks, which  is much different than our modern meal time prayers. The word "blessed" refers to giving thanks or praise. So, I can find no basis for blessing food in the traditional sense. It's all about giving thanks and having a grateful heart. Our flesh seeks to be blessed but our spirit calls us to be a blessing to God through our obedience to His Word.  We are not born with a thankful heart. All of my kids have come out of the package preset on selfish mode. I didn't have to teach them to say "mine."
 
I was hearing my kids praying the same way, over and over again, "Bless this, bless that." One day following a meal time prayer I said, "That's it! The food does not need a blessing. We are going to stop blessing the food!" My wife looked at me a little crazy but then I gave the reason. We need to give thanks for everything. Most importantly, what Jesus did for us on the cross and the blood that was shed for our sins. We should never pray without first exalting and giving praise to the one who provided us with everything.
 
God wants us to have a thankful heart, but it is very difficult in this rich nation where we live. Most of us eat at leisure, consuming three to four meals a day. How quickly we forget who provides. The last thing we need is another meal. Would my prayer and attitude be different if I hadn't eaten for a week? Most definitely! I'm sure God cringes every time our greedy, self-centered prayers pollute the airwaves with meaningless words that lift up our food instead of Him.
 
The prayer before meals should be less about the food and more about our hearts before God. How can one prayer at a meal reveal one's attitude? Instead of being thankful for what God provided, we have prayed in a self-centered way, not giving thanks, but saying, "Lord, please season the food to my liking." 
 
Obviously, this was a great teaching time for my kids but it was also an attitude check for me; I had not had an attitude of gratefulness, but of greed. My heart condition needed to be one of thanksgiving, not of a self-abstaining pride. Our pride is always looking to show its face when it is left unchecked. I would never want to approach God with an ungrateful heart, but that's the direction my attitude was going.  
 
In my own life I'm trying to rid myself of useless tradition and focus on honoring God in every area of my life. There is a new attitude during our family prayer time, one that is now more God-centered rather than food-centered.