Prayer Before Meals

Prayer is an essential part of following Jesus. We don't often think about prayer before meals. Why is it so easy to let a meal or snack go by without first thanking God for our food? Why is prayer before meals so important? What should our prayer be like?

How often do you sit down and mindlessly eat food in front of the TV. Or grab a snack quickly, on-the-go, and focus more on the next thing to do than the food in your hand? Or dig into a meal at a restaurant without pausing to thank God?

If you're anything like me, you do these things more often than you'd like.

Our society moves quickly now, compared to a couple decades ago. We are on the go. Doing everything. Or we are lost in the world of social media, scrolling through our phones, not paying attention to the world around us.

Meal times have drastically decreased, from an average of 90 minutes to less than 15.

Food is readily available. Grocery stores are filled to the brim with everything you could possibly imagine. Every street you turn onto, there's a restaurant or a gas station or a coffee shop inviting you in to eat more food.

This makes it so easy to forget.

Our food comes from somewhere.

It doesn't just appear in the store. Someone made it or someone grew it. It started in the earth.

But more importantly, it started with God.

In Genesis, God created the earth and all the plants and animals. He made our food. God knew that you would one day sit down to your bowl of pasta for dinner. He provided the fertile earth, the plants to grow, and the workers to harvest your food.

When you eat, you are consuming God's creation. What a wonderful gift He gave us.

Now I don't want to sound like a kindergarten teacher, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. When someone gives us a gift, we should say thank you and cherish the gift we were given.

That's where prayer comes in.

Before we eat, let's thank God, our wonderful creator, for giving us the gift of His (literal) fruit.

What should my prayer before meals look like?

Prayer before meals can be different for everyone, depending on how you best express your gratitude. Personally, I always start with a simple: Thank you God for this food.

I then like to remember why I am eating my food and what God is doing for my body with my food. The Corinthians verse, "Honor God with your body" comes to mind here.

I also want to avoid mindlessly eating my food and forgetting about God's gift as soon as my prayer is done. So, I typically ask God to help me enjoy the food in the way He intended for me.

Then, I eat. Super simple.

But your prayer doesn't have to look like mine. What if you want to say the Grace prayer (Bless us oh Lord…)? That's great! Or what if you want to say another prayer? Go for it!

I encourage you to find meaning and intention in your prayer. Avoid starting with a mindless memorized prayer and then moving on to eat your meal mindlessly. Think about your food and the blessings God has given you that you have access to it.