By Andrew Chesteen
As with most families raising small children, sitting for a week-night meal around the dinner table is both a blessing and struggle. The struggles, of course, are preparing the meal, getting the little ones seated, keeping them seated, and cleaning up afterwards. The blessings are incalculable: eye contact with spouse and children, reports from life in elementary school, home-cooked food, and many more.
One of the sweetest blessings of mealtime is praying before we eat, or at least before all is eaten. Often, we ask one or both of our children to offer the mealtime prayer. My daughter, our oldest child, usually personalizes her prayers and prays God’s blessings on our meal as well as His help for family and church members who are hurting. My son, usually eager to continue eating, offers the memorized prayer we taught him: God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we are fed. Thank you, Lord, for daily bread. Amen.
This memorized prayer, though simple and familiar, helps us offer thanks to the Lord our Provider, even before we enjoy His provision. Abraham knew the Lord to be his provider. When he ascended Mount Moriah with Isaac and the wood, Abraham testified to his faith in God to provide the lamb for the offering (Gen. 22:8). When the Lord provided, Abraham praised God and named that place, “The Lord will provide” (Gen. 22:14).
Jesus trusted in the greatness of His Father’s provision. Jesus took fives loaves of bread and two fish, and after saying a blessing, He fed five thousand men with one boy’s lunch (Mark 6:41). On another occasion, Jesus gave thanks to the Father for seven loaves and a few small fish before serving them to four thousand men (Mark 8:6).
Jesus also trusted in the goodness of His Father’s provision. During His final Passover meal with His disciples, Jesus blessed the bread and gave thanks for the cup prior to serving His disciples (Mark 14:22-23). His prayers of thanksgiving highlighted His trust in the goodness of what the Father was providing for the disciples in His own body and blood (Mark 14:24).
God is great and God is good, so we can trust Him to provide for all of our needs. Perhaps you have a need in this season of life, and you are unsure of how the need can be met. Whether the need is financial, physical, psychological, relational, or spiritual, you can trust our good and great God to provide.
The apostle Paul affirmed this truth when he declared, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19) and when he asked, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).
In this season, you can reflect on God’s past provision in your life and begin now thanking Him for how He will provide to meet every need that arises in your future. And the next time your child or grandchild prays, “God is great, God is good. . .” let your heart worship with thanksgiving the God who always provides for His own.
Chesteen is pastor of First Church, New Albany, and president-elect of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.
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