Thank God for Your Provisions

We’re surrounded by blind people everywhere. Not the kind who can’t see light and the colorful world around them, but the kind who can’t see God.

Why can’t they see God? Well, not because there’s nothing to see. To be sure, no one can see God directly (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12). But anyone can see the evidence of Godthrough the world he has made all around them.

King David said that “the heavens declare the glory of God” and “the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psa 19:1). Many years later, the apostle Paul said that “his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” (Rom 1:20).

Here’s the point. Though a person can’t “see God,” they can see that he is there and what he is like. His power and existence as God over all things is obvious. The reality of God is all around us, yet we still can’t see him.

That’s why Paul said that “although [people] knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom 1:21).

The word glorify means “to magnify something,” “to make something obvious and easy to see,” “to make a big deal about something.”

Is that what you’re doing? Are you magnifying God? Are you making him obvious and easy to see? Are you making a big deal about him?

How can we do this? You probably think I’m going to say, “Be a witness who talks about Jesus and the gospel.” That’s a good answer, but that’s not what I’m going to say. My answer is simpler than that and it’s something everyone can do.

Are you ready for this? You need to be thankful. And not just that, but you need to talk to God and say, “Thank you.”

Here’s what you need to understand. Giving thanks to God is not just a polite thing to do or a habit you need to have to “be a good Christian.” When you know what you’re doing and you do it from the heart, giving thanks to God can be a very powerful moment in your life – every single time.

When you give thanks to God, you uncover his greatness and goodness. You expose how good God really is – to yourself and to those who are around you.

Through this three-part series called Hiding God, I want to uncover God for you in a bigger way so that you can expose him to blind people around you who are living in the spiritual dark.

For $300, you can sponsor a one-time procedure that gives sight to blind children in India. But at no cost to you, you can help people see the greatness and goodness of God every single day of your life.

Here’s the first way you can uncover God – by thanking him for your provisions.

Here’s what the Bible has to say about this. In three of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), we read that Jesus did something interesting. When he was eating the Passover meal with his disciples, he blessed the bread before they ate it and he gave thanks for the juice before they drank it (Matt 26:26-27; Mark 14:22-23; Luke22:19-20).

We see this kind of thing happening again in the book of Acts, which describes how Christians lived those first years after Jesus rose again and returned to heaven. At one point, Paul was on Roman ship which had been battered badly by a storm. Before it wrecked on an island, he and some passengers on the boat ate some of the food that was onboard. Can you guess what he did? Before they ate the bread, he “gave thanks to God in the presence of them all” (Acts 27:35).

Later on, Paul wrote a letter to a pastor named Timothy. Through this letter, he taught this man how to be a good pastor. Funny at it may sound, one of the things he told Timothy to teach people in the church was how to eat food (1 Tim 4:4). In fact, right after he wrote about that, he said that Timothy would be “a good minister of Jesus Christ” (1 Tim 4:6).

You see, some people back then taught that it was good to eat some foods and bad to eat others. In fact, there’s a fascinating history to this discussion.

• In the beginning God told people to eat only plants (Gen 1:29; 2:16).

• After the Flood he permitted them to eat any of the animals also (Gen 9:3-4).

• Still later he restricted the kinds of animals that Jewish people could eat (Lev 11).

• Today he lets us eat anything he’s created as food, plant or animal (1 Tim 4:4-5).

This open allowance comes with one condition – that we eat with thanksgiving. That’s what Paul did on the shipwrecked boat and that’s what you and I should do today.

Some people call this “saying grace.” Others call it “praying for the food.” Whatever you call it, it’s a good thing to do – and you should do it, for EVERYTHING you eat and drink.

What should you say?

You should “bless God” and “give thanks.” You should not do this mindlessly, but thoughtfully and from your heart, fully aware of whom you are speaking to and what you are saying.

“Giving thanks” means “to express gratitude.” There are all kinds of ways to do that. “Thank you for this food.” “I am so grateful for this food.” “I appreciate what you’ve done by providing this food for me.” “I don’t deserve this food, but I’m so glad you’ve given it to me.”

There are so many ways to say this, so don’t settle in and say it the same way all the time. If you say the same thing every time, then you run the risk of what Jesus called “vain repetitions,” which means “saying the same thing over and over again.”

“Blessing God” means “to express God’s magnificence and exalted status” as the one who is the source of all blessing and goodness, greatness and honor. It is also recognizing some amazement that he has chosen to share some of his goodness with you by providing you with the food that you’re about to eat.

How can you express this in words? “You are such a good God.” “You have been so good to me.” “As I think about your greatness…” “You are the source of all blessing.” “Everything that I have comes from you.” And so on.

In the end, what you need to do is say things that transform the food in front of you into a moment that shines the spotlight on God so that you can uncover his greatness and goodness, as a reminder to you and a reminder to others.

Sometimes we take the opportunity to say all sorts of other things, turning the mealtime prayer into an extended prayer meeting, with a thanks for the food tacked on at the end. This isn’t a bad thing to do, but it’s not necessary either.

Sometimes we pray for everything else, but we never actually get around to thanking God for the food!

Sometimes we say something like, “Bless the hands that prepared this food.” That’s nice too, but are you really thinking about what it means? Whose hands prepared that food? Was it just your mother who put the casserole on the table?

Let’s say you’re giving thanks for the world’s simplest meal – a PBJ. Three ingredients –peanut butter, grape jelly, white bread. How simple is that? Well, not so simple, actually.

Each of these ingredients was:

• Placed on a shelf by a grocery store employee.

• Delivered to the store by a truck driver.

• Packaged by factory workers running various machines.

• Processed by some other factory workers running some other machines.

• Delivered to the factory by another truck driver who brought the peanuts and wheat grain from the fields and the grapes from the vineyards.

Before that, some farmers and other employees planted the seeds and cared for the fields and vineyards to get the peanuts, grapes, and wheat grain to grow.

This simple summary doesn’t even begin to explore who owns and manages the fields, the factories, and the stores, or who made the trucks and maintains them, who made the machines and maintains them, who inspected the food, and so on. In reality, when you say, “Bless the hands that prepared this food,” you’re praying for hundreds of people or more – just for a single PBJ.

Now think about this, in a typical Thanksgiving meal, you have roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. And don’t forget the whipped cream, butter, salt, pepper, and whatever smaller ingredients it took to make all this food. The hands that prepared this food certainly number in the thousands.

So here’s the big question. Where does the sun, rain, and nutrient-rich soil come from? Where do the grape seeds, wheat kernels, and peanut seeds come from? Where do the people throughout this process come from? How do they get their energy and skill to do the work? How do they get the money, resources, and equipment to do their jobs? How do they get the breath, health, and food to be alive? The answer to this is– God.

The food on your table or in your lunch bag is always from God. He provides, sustains, and enables all the science, health, personnel, and resources needed to get that food to your table. When you consider all God does to give you food, you should be amazed by your peanut butter sandwich. More importantly, you should be in awe of how God who provided it.

When you consider all God does to give you food, you should be amazed by your peanut butter sandwich.

Whether you’re eating bananas or apples, mangos or cabbage, green beans or corn … whether you’re eating chicken, hamburger, ham, shrimp, or Spam … whether you’re drinking cider, grape juice, soda, or chocolate milk – give thanks to God. No matter how you look at it, God gave you that food and you should eat it with thanksgiving.

When should you do it?

Saying thanks to God is so important that you should do it, like Paul, even in a shipwreck and even in the presence of nonbelievers.

In a shipwreck? Well that’s when it’s not convenient. In the presence of nonbelievers? Well that’s when you’re with people who don’t also believe on Jesus and who don’t have this habit. If they permit you to do so, you can lead them in the prayer with you. If they do not, then you can bow your head and do so by yourself.

Don’t worry about offending the people around you. Don’t worry about your food getting cold. Just take a moment to thank God for the food he’s given and mention his goodness for doing so.

Why should you say it?

Because thanking God for your food exposes you and others to the greatness and goodness of God.

You could argue that the food itself is enough evidence for the greatness and goodness of God, and it is! But why don’t you walk away from every meal amazed by the incredible goodness and greatness of God – whether a PBJ or a Thanksgiving dinner? And why don’t other people in your family and your life do the same? Perhaps because you didn’t pause to recognize God as the founder of the feast, as the one who provided that food in the first place. You go on and eat the meal like you’re blind.

When you fail to thank God for the food you eat, you slowly lose touch with the amazing provision that’s sitting right before you. He did all that was necessary to get that food to your table? And he did all that for you? He did, and that’s amazing!

When you fail to thank God for the food you eat, you slowly lose touch with the amazing provision that’s sitting right before you.

What’s more, you rob the people around you of a chance to see God. When you have the perfect moment to uncover his greatness to people whose minds may be a million miles away, you hide him instead. They go on with their meal like a blind man walks through Times Square, surrounded by all sorts of things, but not able to see them and not even aware of what’s there.

If you could offer the gift of sight to a child born blind, would you do it? Or would you be afraid of offending them?

If you could offer the gift of helping a person see the greatness and goodness of God by offering a prayer of thanks for his provision, would you do it? Or would you be afraid to bring God up? To make a big deal about him – the only thing, the only one who really IS a BIG DEAL.

Did you know that some people around you won’t think about God if they don’t see and hear you thank God for your food? Your child or spouse. Your co-worker or colleague. Your roommate or waiter. That random person sitting across the cafeteria or restaurant from you who’s blind to the things of God may suddenly think about God when they see you pray! When you thank God for your food, you uncover his greatness and goodness to others.

Some people around you won’t think about God if they don’t see and hear you thank God for your food?

Let’s pause for a moment to imagine something special together. Imagine that you and everyone else who is listening to this message decides to do this. We decide to thank God before every meal – even when we’re in a rush or when nonbelievers are nearby. We decide to say fresh things every time that acknowledge the greatness and goodness of God and we decide to express our thankfulness with words that come from our hearts.

What will be the result if we do? We will “eat and drink to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). We will transform our eating into moments that uncover the greatness and goodness of God. We expose the people around us to the truth of God’s existence and of his involvement in their lives.

More people will be aware of God to a greater degree than they would have been otherwise –and that’s a great way to start the month of November as we look ahead to Thanksgiving. If we all take this step together, we’ll stop hiding God and give him more of the attention that he deserves to receive. Let’s do it.