Why do some pray a blessing over food?
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· 5 viewsThankfulness as a way of life
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I was wasting time and saw what I learned, was an old video, because an annoyed Millennial told me it was old when I brought it up but maybe you haven’t seen, and maybe you have but it’s still cute:
Intro dog video of “praying dog”
This is hilarious. I have to prove some intelligence hear because I have a need and say I get it, the dog doesn’t need to pray it needs to have it was trained not to eat until it’s paw is held and it hears the phrase “Amen”. Dogs are awesome that way, they love to be trained.
Some friends have said Christianity is not a religion but a relationship, and while I want to say did you know you can google definitions now, you don’t even have to own a dictionary. If you look up the definitions of these words Christianity most certainly is a religion, what they are really getting at is what they, the person saying it, means people do with a religion. For them, it’s doing religious practices like this dog on training, like one can’t even act without this religious practice. For some, “religion” is more like making spells hoping that the “Universe” or “goddess/gods” other powers will manipulate things either into your favor or at least not hurt the stuff in your life. This dogs training, and some people’s training, won’t let them or even requires them to do stuff.
But when you are hanging out with people you don’t have to do the exact same thing every time for them to understand or come to meaning. When you have a relationship, there is so many different ways things can get done between the two of you:
I might show affection to my wife by saying I love you, giving a kiss, a hug, or even picking up milk from the store on the way home. It’s not training but a thousand different variety of ways that are constantly changing. Her response isn’t guaranteed.
So than why do we pray before meals. Because we follow Jesus and we saw Jesus do it.
19 Then he commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
There Jesus was and before this great meal, and other meals, he gives thanks. But it gets to a much bigger idea, because it isn’t just about meals.
It’s about giving thanks by giving credit to God.
We can learn about it from a non-Bible source.
In the Babylonian Talmud, a talmud is a collection of Jewish teachings from their rabbis. This powerful idea that goes to the heart of an idea through all of the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament.:
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Jewish Prayers of Thanksgiving
The Babylonian Talmud forbids anyone from enjoying any pleasure from the world until they have first offered a “blessing” to God, who has provided it (Berakhot 35a; Simon, Tractate Berakoth, 134–36). The Babylonian Talmud views the blessing as a means of thanks because pleasure is only made available through God’s goodness and love
I bring up this idea from the Babylonian Talmud to give not a new rule, we line in God’s grace, but as a thought what if you offer a blessing to God for every pleasure. Because pleasure is made available through God’s goodness and love.
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
When this part of the Bible was being made people, there were people looking to come into the small gatherings of Christians and teach weird things to get a following. To come to there own power so they were trying to come up with all kinds of extra rules about following Jesus. Like you couldn’t eat a certain food or any food at such a time, or you couldn’t get married or all kinds of things.
We followers of Jesus can be easily tempted to make rules. Rules are helpful like don’t touch hot stoves, but some become so much like idols, granting false power to people rather than God.
But instead the Bible calls on us “to do everything for the glory of God,” not to look for a bunch of rules, about things forbidden or not forbidden but can you do it bringing for the glory of God.
23 “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up.
There are many things in life that do destroy, we are adults here and should know that. Don’t clown, we know certain things are bad. It’s stupid to thank God for sin.
Yet, From dating to dirt bike riding there is a lot of life that is great. Then, there is some of life that disappears from being great unless gratitude is shown to it.
Ever heard the phrase:
Safe landings don’t make the news.
Safe landings don’t make the news.
It’s that idea that we are always attracted to the negative. It makes sense as a way to stay alive but it isn’t the way it should be. It isn’t the intention of creation. Creation is meant to be in a peaceful relationship with God. We read God creating everything calling it good but with sin everything begins to be destroyed. Everything breaks down.
We will see that negativity will disappear in the end of days.
Revelation 21:4 (CSB)
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
So in the mean time we actually have to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit and not get stuck on the fears of this world.
18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Let us pay attention to the landed planes, the days we have work, the Ramen on our table as well as the fact that we have a table. The chair we sit in and the ability to bend our legs to sit in that table. Let us fill our minds with the realizations of the treasures that God has already bestowed upon us.
20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
What about when it isn’t good. Let’s look to Jesus
Imagine if you trying to start everyone to get interested in a change of thinking. To hear God’s idea. A big idea, a great idea, that could change the world.
Would you get billboards or Influencers like Youtubers, or huge stars like Taylor Swift.
If you wanted to change the world would you go for you?
In the Bible God sent prophets who did amazing things and people killed them. Before Jesus, God sent the prophet John, the Baptizer, and He was weird and said God inspiried things but as Jesus said, no one listened instead they blamed something else.
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
Jesus pointed out that they wouldn’t listen to him either.
Then he finished with thankfulness.
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants.
Not literal infants, but to those who were regular people. They were people who worked 12 to 14 hour days to take care of their families and community. They were like you not like producers in Hollywood.
It wasn’t grasped by those in power. No Roman wrote anything down about Jesus until several decades later. Yet, God showed thankfulness in what is.
In fact Jesus thankfulness begins with a term of worship!
Jesus said “I praise you” what flows next for some would be thought of as a negative but Jesus praises God for it.
Then he continues
26 Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure.
27 All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.
God the Father, the eternal one, worthy of worship. Who sent his Son, also eternal never beginning or ending, he sent to us, born Jesus of Nazareth, which is the person talking in verse 27. Jesus says that he chose it this way. Jesus chose his followers. Out of His thankfulness Jesus reveals God’s power. God chose it this way. God chose you.
That’s right the one in the mirror, God is thankful for you. You know how you can’t do those things people tell you. That you can’t move good enough, sing well enough, think, the stuff that everyone else uses to tell you how much better you are.
God says, “I’m so thankful I chose you.”
God says, “I’m so thankful I chose you.”
Out of that thankfulness of Jesus, He keeps going, hopefully in some verses that sound very, very familiar to you:
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
It is out of Jesus’ thankfulness that we can lay down our burdens to Him. Jesus thankfulness starts his worship out of his thankfulness pours out generosity, to care for all of us to give us rest for our souls.
Thankfulness is the power to realize that God is not losing. He is choosing. You are not without, You have riches all around. And in the midst of all of your life: your disease, your disabilities, your heart-ache. There is a God who gave you Himself, to deliver you from the power of sin and having to one up and cover up, instead told you to take up your cross and follow Him.
You can be thankful in all things.
20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
So let’s be grateful to God.
Let us take the time to thank God for the landed planes. I personally worked really hard this week on my week off.
put together classrooms
put together gardens
put together furniture
What does thankfulness look like:
I have people in my life who will speak to me. I have arms, hands and the ability to go to these places. I have the knowledge to read the instructions. I have a pickup that can bring things back and forth.
Time still existed to do all of this.
Time of Thankfulness
Time of Thankfulness
