{"id":10331,"date":"2018-08-04T15:36:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T15:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=10331"},"modified":"2018-08-04T15:36:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T15:36:37","slug":"blessing-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/10331\/blessing-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessing Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey Pastor John \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the reason people feel the need to “bless” their food, or rather, saying a prayer for Jesus to bless it, before they eat? \u00a0(I’m not really sure which it is). \u00a0Is there something in the Bible that mentions that people should? \u00a0I haven’t found anything. I only see Jesus blessing the food that he was about to serve, multiple times, but I haven’t seen where anyone else does it as ritual. \u00a0So, why did Jesus do it? \u00a0Why did he “give thanks” for the bread before he broke it?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leah<\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Leah.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus gave thanks for the food he held in his hand because he was thankful for it. He was not, as you know, instituting a ceremony for his followers to observe. Also, Paul taught that, unlike God\u2019s Old Testament people, we who believe are free to eat whatever we desire because the food we eat is \u201csanctified by the word of God and by prayer\u201d (1Tim. 4:5). \u00a0But by that, Paul was not instituting a ceremony, either. \u00a0He was not even suggesting that \u201cthe word of God and prayer\u201d which sanctifies our food should take place when we sit down to eat. \u00a0He was instead describing the holy kind of life that sanctifies our food and everything else in our lives.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There is nothing in the Bible, whether Old or New Testament, which promotes \u201csaying [or asking] a blessing\u201d before eating a meal. \u00a0To do so is just another religious act that we humans have come up with, in our frail effort to honor God.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If I am at a restaurant and see someone praying before he eats, I respect his praying, and I pray for him, that Jesus will bless his desire to honor God by revealing to him how to really do it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for the question.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey Pastor John \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 What is the reason people feel the need to “bless” their food, or rather, saying a prayer for Jesus to bless it, before they eat? \u00a0(I’m not really sure which it is). \u00a0Is there something in the Bible that mentions that people should? \u00a0I haven’t found anything. I only see Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}