How to pray before the meal? Or, why I don’t pray “Lord, bless this food…” anymore

All the Christians I know have always prayed before the meal: “Lord, bless this food…”. I also prayed using these words until I met a person who showed me the texts in the Bible that convinced me to reconsider this practice. If you are one of those who “bless the food” in their prayers, in this article I am going to question this type of prayers.

It’s not about a habit of praying, that some people are used to pray in one way, and others used to pray differently. It’s all about what the Bible teaches and what it does not. And, as we’ll see later, the issue of the prayer before the meal is much more important and deeper than it may seem at first sight.

Why? Because it concerns not only the food, but also the upbringing of the next generation. We’ll talk about this later. Let’s thoroughly study this subject together.

In the Old Testament God gave to Israel the following commandment:

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you” (Deut. 8:10, NIV).

Here it says: “when you have eaten… praise the Lord for the good land He has given you”. The Scripture calls on the Jews to give thanks to the Lord for the blessings they receive, including their food. Since those times and until now, in Israel, they say a prayer called “the blessing for the bread,” but what is even more important, it’s not the bread that is blessed, but as stated in the verse above, God Himself:

BLESSED ARE YOU O LORD, OUR GOD, KING OF THE UNIVERSE, WHO BRINGS FORTH BREAD FROM THE EARTH!

(in Hebrew: BARUKH ATTAH, ADONAI ELOHEINU, MELEKH HA-OLAM, HA-MOTZI LECHEM, MIN HA-ARETZ)

This is obvious for every Jew: you have to thank the Lord, the Giver of the food, before the meal. That is why the Jews have a special prayer for the food, and another prayer for the drink. Here are the thought of the famous Scottish theologian and commentator, William Barclay:

When Jews ate fruit, they said: “Blessed art thou, King of the Universe, who createst the fruit of the tree”. When they drank wine, they said: “Blessed art thou, King of the Universe, who createst the fruit of the vine”. When they ate vegetables, they said: “Blessed art thou, King of the Universe, who createst the fruit of the earth”. When they ate bread, they said: “Blessed art thou, King of the Universe, who bringest forth bread from the ground”.

Thus, every meal in the Jewish family is accompanied by the glorification of God and thanksgiving to Him.

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ on several occasions prayed before the meal:

And He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people (Matthew 14:19, NIV).

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. (Mark 6:41, NIV)

Some people are mistaken and think that the word “blessed” in these texts refers to the bread, but in fact the Jews never blessed the bread, but blessed God, and offered Him their thanks. Here is the proof. Let’s read about the Last Supper:

And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body (Mark 14:22, KJV)

Here we come across the phrase «took bread, and blessed» (please note that it does not say that Jesus blessed the bread itself). And the Apostle Paul had written:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me“ (1 Cor. 11:23, 24, NIV).

To the Apostle Paul, who was a Jew, it was evident that when Jesus “blessed the bread”, He gave thanks to God for that bread, that is why Paul wrote “took bread, and when He had given thanks,…”. Obviously, He had given thanks to God, not to the bread. In the same way, the word “blessed” in terms of the prayer before a meal always refers to God.

In the New Testament, the prayer before a meal is always a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God:

For if I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:30, 31, NIV).

Where did this habit to bless the bread come from? Possibly, it came from misunderstanding of the following two passages: 1 Timothy 4:3-5 and Luke 9:16. The first passage begins with warnings against false teachers, and then it continues with the thoughts on the prayer for the food.

They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:3–5, NIV).

Here we read twice that a prayer before a meals is a prayer of thanksgiving. And food is “consecrated by the word of God and prayer”. That is right, but by what prayer? By the thanksgiving prayer, my friends, not by the prayer of request. This text does not give us any grounds for asking God, who gave us food, to bless and sanctify this food as well, but it encourages us to thank the Creator for the food. It is also said here that food is “consecrated by the word of God and prayer” as a result of our thanksgiving prayer. It says nothing about the request.

But what about the text saying that Jesus blessed the loaves?

And He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and brake; and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. (Luke 9:16, ASV).

That’s right, Jesus “blessed the loaves”, but now, from the general context of the Bible, we know that it means: He gave thanks to God for the loaves and in this way He “blessed” them (1 Tim. 4:3-5).

None of the Christians who prayed “Lord, bless this food” could explain to me, how God was supposed to answer their prayer of request. Should He change the quality of the food in a certain way? Or should He make it free from any harmful substances? The answer is simple: He never commanded us to pray about our food in this way. Is it a sin to continue asking God to bless the food in my prayers before the meals as I was used to do? Read the texts again, study this subject on your own, and then try to find the answer to this question. Here is my own answer: “The Bible does not teach me to ask blessing for the food, that is why I shall not do this. From now on, I will always praise God”.

THE QUESTION IS MORE SERIOUS THAN IT SEEMS

There is a deeper reason why this subject is so important and why I raised this question. “Bless this food” is a human-centered prayer. In its nature such a prayer is about ourselves, and the main focus is our own wellbeing and safety. It sounds to me like a prayer of a heathen. I’m not saying that asking God for His blessings is wrong (for God allows us to ask for His blessings, see for example Numbers 6:22–27), but the key point here – who is in the center of our request to sanctify the food and what are the motives for this request. It is obvious that the daily practice of such a prayer only encourages the consumer attitude towards God.

On the contrary, the Creator is in the center of the “blessed is the Lord” prayer. Such prayers exalt and glorify the Giver and serve as a good exercise for our hearts to give thanks to the Creator and worship Him.

The main point is: in what environment our kids are brought up? After all, eating takes place several times a day, and what they hear at the table, more than anything else, shapes their understanding of God! Think about this: we pray before the meal twenty times more often than we listen to the Sunday sermons. This may be the reason why in churches we mostly hear the prayers of requests, and only on the Thanksgiving Day we remind ourselves about the importance of gratitude to God. It is difficult to argue against this point and say that these things are not relevant. “Consumerism” in modern Christianity is formed by several factors, and the prayer for food, drop by drop, day in and day out, is one of the key factors.

Conclusions: As a result of a thorough study on this subject, I questioned my previous practice of praying at the table and began to pray in a new way: “We thank you, Lord, for the food You have given us. We praise You for Your kindness and generosity. Amen”. Now every prayer before the breakfast, the lunch, and the supper has transformed from a regular request into our family worship to God. The question is not the way you are used to pray, the question is – who is in the center of your prayer, and how it affects people around you.

Source: “Worship alphabet with family” by Serhii Solohub, Kiev