Saying grace before a meal

To thank God for his provisions.



or...

to get it out of the way to be able to eat before the meal gets cold!

 

Because we say "bless this food we are about to partake"

 

I'm no expert on the matter but my guess would be to give thanks in the manner that Christ gave thanks before taking the bread and cup at the last supper.

 

Because when Moses was standing at the Red Sea, God parted it.

 

1Th 5:16 Rejoice always;
1Th 5:17 pray without ceasing;
1Th 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Might have came from these verses.

 

Moses thanked God for dry land.

I thank God for food.

 

I believe it's because the traditional prayer used to say grace is "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food, Amen."
I am thinking this could make us look silly but I could be wrong

 

Because after the meal it's too late.

 

1 Tim 4:4, 5.

 

The food is thus set apart for nourishment as in the case of John 6, where Jesus bless the food before He fed the multitude.

 

1. Paul bless the food in Acts 27:34-36, without a miracle.

2. Jesus does the same after His resurrection (Lk 24:30).

3. I suspect it a way of showing thankfulness and at the same time, sanctifying the food.

4. Outside of that, it may boil down to good table manners, but that is too shallow a reason.

 

RE: Why do we say grace before eating?

Web, I am no expert on this matter, either. I guess some of this could be tradition? I do think it's very biblically supported, as some have quoted scriptures in reference to the subject at hand. I may not ask for His blessing everytime I eat a snack, but when I set down at the table, I do my best to do it everytime. I know that without Him blessing me to be able to work to bring home the money to buy the food, the car to drive to get the food, the money to buy the gas to put in it, the ability of my wife to cook for me....LOL. So in essensce, He allows/blesses me to have the food on our table. So this is why we should worry more about giving thanks to Him, than wondering why we do/should. I thank Him for all that He has given me!

Willis

 

Frankly, I think it is-- or at least can be-- rather silly. I don't know why, but I am often considered 'the one' to ask to "bless" the food when I am eating with others-- which is a rarity, as I live alone and work odd hours. Anyway, I have turned some people off to this by surprising them with terms like "bless this here food before we shovel it down our traps," or having a rhyme in mind like at Thanksgiving: "We bow our heads and ask your blessing on all this turkey and all this dressing.....thanks for contributing to our obesity, but please bless those who live in necessity." Often enough no one asks for any prayer at the next T-G or other occasion.

Shenandoah has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it on television when I was about 10. But one thing which has changed is my attitude toward 'Charlie Anderson [Jimmy Stewart]'s "grace" at the beginning. He is the patriarch of a Virginia family and wants to stay completely out of the Civil War which is raging around him, because he opposes slavery, yet he does not want any of his 6 sons fighting for or against his fellow Virginians. So they try to 'do their own living' as self-sufficiently as possible. And I now tend to agree with the attitude 'Charlie' shows as the family sits down for their evening meal. He says:

Lord-- we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, harvested. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eatin' it if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel. But we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we're about to eat-Amen.