Psalm 145:15-16

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

Over the course of the next several weeks, I’m going to be teaching you a variety of prayers I learned and still use in my life. The reason? Jesus taught his disciples to pray and so I want to teach you all prayers for a variety of times and occasions of life. Prayer is a wonderful privilege we have from God. It’s my hope that as I teach and encourage you will use these prayers and pray more often. Last week we saw the great prayer Jesus gave his people called the Lord’s Prayer.

This week is a prayer to use before meals. What’s the reason we pray before meals? It’s chow time! We have to eat to get on with our day or the next thing, right?

Psalm 145 tells us why we pray at meals. God provides all our food. He sustains our bodies. All those wonderful things we find tasty and comforting, nutritional and scrumptious, it all comes from the Lord. He provides for people and animals. He takes care of his creation by providing all those things we need for our body and life.

How should we respond to that? Thank God as he provides and takes care of his creation. Before you dive into your breakfast or lunch or dinner, stop! Call everyone’s attention to the provider of all we eat by asking him to be present with his blessing, and thank him for providing all you have on account of his mercy.

And to help you do that, here’s a prayer I learned when I was little.

Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever. Amen.

Or, if you have kids, here’s a fun one my children taught me.

Our hands we fold, our heads we bow, it’s time to talk to Jesus now.

ABC. 123. Thank you God for feeding me. Amen.