Blog Archives
Prayer of thanks for the extraordinary ordinary
Our mouths were filled with laughter then, and our tongues with shouts of joy. – Psalm 126:2, CSB
Lord, I am so blessed. My lips can kiss my wife each morning when I get up and each evening when I go to bed, and I am grateful. Lord, my hands are able to work and provide for my family, and I am thankful. My mouth is filled with a delicious meal, and I am grateful. My tongue shouts when my team hits a home run, and I am thankful. My ears can here the flowing rivers, my nose can smell the fragrant flowers, and my eyes can see the fertile forests, and I am grateful. My head is covered with a safe shelter each night when I go home, and I am thankful. My knees hit the floor each morning and each night in prayer to You, the source of the extraordinary in the ordinary, and I am grateful.
Two prayers for Thanksgiving
Copyright by Bob Rogers.
Reflection on how to give thanks
Lord, how can I thank You enough for all You have done for me? Should I offer a thanksgiving offering like the ancient Israelites in their temple? Should I offer a song of thanks, or tell others of your wonderful works? Yes, Lord, I will do all of these things. Because of all that You have done for me, I will bring an offering of my time and money to You in church. I will offer You praise with my voice in song. I will give a testimony of Your goodness to me.
Prayer testifying to God’s goodness
O, give thanks to the Lord! He has saved me from sin and sickness. He has heard my prayers and answered me. He has given me peace in trials, and hope to overcome despair. He has filled my heart with joy through a loving family, and an encouraging church. I have seen Him change lives; I have seen Him rescue people who seemed beyond hope. He has opened my eyes to His truth through the Bible, His word. Let everybody join me in thanksgiving; let us give thanks to the Lord!
A prayer of thanksgiving
Copyright by Bob Rogers.
O Giver of good gifts, I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving for Your abundant blessings. I thank You that You opened my eyes this morning, You filled my lungs with air, and kept my heart beating. I thank You that You have given me sufficient food to eat, clothes to wear and a roof over my head. I thank You that You loved me so much that you sent Your only Son to die for my sins. I thank You that You filled my life with Your Holy Spirit. I thank You that You breathed upon Your word, the Bible, and gave it to me as a lamp to guide my way this day. I thank You for giving me a family who love me, and brothers and sisters in Christ in the church who encourage me. I thank You most of all, that because You opened my spiritual eyes to faith in Jesus Christ Your Son, I know that there is a morning coming, when I will open my eyes in heaven, and I will see You face to face. Until that day, may I live a life of gratitude, by serving others in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord.
Table grace: 27 prayers to bless the food before meals
Copyright by Bob Rogers
Jesus blessed the food and gave thanks for it when He fed the 5,000, but the Bible doesn’t tell us the words that He prayed. So what should you say when you pray before a meal? That’s up to you, but in case you would like some ideas, here are 27 prayers that I have collected over the years. Where I know the source, I list it in parentheses:
CLASSIC, TRADITIONAL PRAYERS
“Lord, bless this food to our nourishment, and us to Your service. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” (Traditional prayer I heard in my Baptist family.)
“Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive, through Thy bounty through Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.” (Traditional Roman Catholic prayer.)
“Christ God, bless the food and drink of Thy servants, for Thou art holy, always, now and ever, and to the ages. Amen.” (Traditional Eastern Orthodox prayer.)
“Thank you, Lord, for the food we are about to receive, and for the nourishment to our bodies. For Christ’s sake, Amen.”
“Humble our hearts, Oh Lord, and make us thankful for these and all our blessings. In Christ name Amen.” (Shared by Brenda Holloway and Darren Thomas)
PRAYERS MENTIONING FAMILY AND FRIENDS
“Heavenly Father, bless this food, and bless our friends and family who’ve come to dine with us today. Amen.”
“God, we give you thanks for the delicious food on our table, for the loved ones gathered around, and for you, who make it all possible. We are humbly grateful. Amen.” (Norman Vincent Peale, A Prayer for Every Need)
“Dear Lord, we’ve gathered to share good times, good conversation, good friends, and good food, which we thank you for all. Amen.”
“Bless the food before us, the family beside us, and the love between us.” (Shared by Lynda Easterling Stinson)
PRAYERS REMEMBERING THOSE IN NEED
“Give us grateful hearts, O Father, for all thy mercies, and make us mindful of the needs of others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (1928 Book of Common Prayer)
“For food in a world where many are in hunger; For faith in a world where many walk in fear; For friends in a world where many walk alone; We give you thanks, O Lord. Amen.” (Huron Hunger Fund, Anglican Church of Canada)
“Oh Lord, make us grateful for this food that we are about to receive, as we remember those who do not have enough to eat. Amen.”
PRAYERS MENTIONING THOSE WHO PREPARED THE FOOD
“Thank you, Lord for this food, and bless the hands that prepared it. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.” (Traditional prayer I heard in my family.)
“God, many hands made this meal possible. Farmers grew it. Truckers drove it. Grocers sold it. We prepared it. Bless all those hands, and help us always remember our dependence on you. Amen.” (Norman Vincent Peale, A Prayer for Every Need)
“You are mighty Lord, and all providing. We thank you for this food we have been given for nourishment and delight. We ask a special blessing to those who prepared this meal with love and care tonight. Amen.”
CHILDREN’S PRAYERS
“God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands, we are fed. Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen.” (Traditional children’s rhyme.)
To the tune of Frere Jacques (“Brother John”): “God our Father, God our Father, We thank you, We thank you, For our many blessings, For our many blessings, A-men, A-men.”
“ABCDEFG Thank you, God, for feeding me.”
To the tune of Superman Theme: “Thank you God for giving us food. Thank you God for giving us food. [Both hands pointed up.] For daily bread, that we are fed. [One hand moves to the hip on ‘daily bread’ and then alternate with other hand on ‘we are fed.’] Thank you God [hands up], for giving us food” [hands move to the hips and voice deepens.](Shared by Joseph & Beth Copeck)
“Thank You for the food we eat, yum yum! Thank You for the friends we meet, ho ho! Thank You for the birds that sing, a-ling a-ling! Thank You, Lord, for everything, Amen!” (Robin Anker Peterson of Perth, Scotland, sang this happily to his young children.)
PRAYERS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
“Some hae meat and cannae eat. Some nae meat but want it. We hae meat and we can eat and sae the Lord be thankit.” (Some have meat and cannot eat. Some no meat but want it. We have meat and we can eat and so the Lord be thanked.) (Scottish blessing.)
“Alles das wir haben (All that we have), Alles ist gegaben (All of it is a gift), Es kommt, O Gott, von dir (It comes, O God, from you), Wir danken dir dafuer. (We thank you for it.)” (German blessing.)
“Cristo, pan de vida (Christ, bread of life) Ven y bendice esta comida. Amen. (Come and bless this food.)” (Spanish blessing.)
WITTY, PITHY PRAYERS
“Good food, good meat, good Lord, let’s eat. Amen.”
“Lord, bless this bunch as they munch their lunch.”
“Grace in the kitchen, Grace in the hall, please O God, don’t let them get it all.” (Shared by Buddy Wasson)
“Lazarus rose, Moses led, Noah built, Jesus fed. Amen.” (Debbie T. Alsup)
YOUR PRAYERS
What prayers do you pray before meals? Please share one in the comments below, and I may add it to the list. After all, we need to keep our prayers as fresh as the food we thank God for giving to us.
Pilgrims and Pigs at Thanksgiving
Cal & Rose Samra tell how Thanksgiving Day was approaching, and a family received a Thanksgiving card with a painting of a Pilgrim family on their way to church.
Grandma showed the card to her small grandchildren, saying, “The Pilgrim children like to go to church with their mothers and fathers.”
“Oh yeah?” her grandson shot back, “if they really like to go, then why is their dad carrying that rifle?”
Which raises a question this Thanksgiving: do you really like to worship God and give Him thanks?
John Walker from Post, Texas, tells about a Christian farmer who visited a city and went to eat at a fine restaurant. When he received his food, he bowed his head and quietly gave thanks to God. Some rowdy teenagers at the next table sneered and said, “Hey farmer, does everybody do that where you live?”
The old farmer looked at the young man and calmly said, “No, son, the pigs don’t.”
Don’t be a pig this Thanksgiving. Be willing to give thanks to your Creator for all His gifts to you. Do it gladly, without somebody having to hold a rifle to your head.
If you see a video ad below this post, please understand that I have no control over these ads, and that I do not necessarily endorse the product.
Mrs. Irby comes to the wrong church — or comes to the church wrong
Copyright 2012 by Bob Rogers
A Baptist pastor accepted the call to a church in Sledge, Mississippi. The day that he moved in, a 90-year-old woman drove up and greeted him in his driveway. “I’m Mrs. Irby,” she said. “I was a Presbyterian until my husband died, then I went back to the Methodist Church. But I don’t ever intend on coming to your church. I just came by to say welcome to the community.” With that, she drove off, spinning wheels and throwing dirt and rocks all over the new pastor.
So the pastor was surprised months later, when Mrs. Irby showed up one Sunday morning at the Baptist church. Early in the service, the pastor asked everybody to stand and greet one another. Mrs. Irby started to head out the door. The Baptists asked her where she was going, and she said, “In my church, when you stand, it’s time to go.” They helped her back to her pew to stay for the rest of the service. The pastor began to preach, and Mrs. Irby shouted loudly to the young lady beside her, “When is he ever gonna quit?” The congregation chuckled, and the pastor wrapped up his sermon quickly. Mrs. Irby stood to go. As she greeted the pastor at the door, she said, “The only reason I came here today is that the Methodists didn’t have church because their pipes busted. But I didn’t get a thing out of your sermon. Next time I’ll have to remember to bring my hearing aids.” And with that, she was out the door, never to return.
Which reminds me: you only get out of church what you put into it. The psalmist says, “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!” (Psalm 100:2, 4, ESV). Come to church with a prayer in your heart, a smile on your face, a Bible in your hand, and if you need them, glasses on your eyes and hearing aids in your ears, so that you don’t miss what God wants to say to you.
If we could have been there that first Thanksgiving…
I read about a kindergarten teacher who prepared her class for Thanksgiving by telling them all about the Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower and settling at Plymouth Rock. She told how the Pilgrims endured their first winter and celebrated their blessings in a feast with the local Indians. One little girl went home and told her mom every detail that she could remember. Her mother asked what the Pilgrims and Indians ate that first Thanksgiving. Stumped by the question, the little girl said, “I can’t remember, Mommy, but you can ask my teacher. She was there!”
Well, the teacher might not have been there, but we would all do well to remember what happened there on that first Thanksgiving. Many Americans have forgotten that it was to God that the Pilgrims gave thanks. In the famous “Mayflower Compact” that they adopted on November 11, 1620 are these words: “We whose names are underwritten… having undertaken for ye glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith… a voyage to plant ye first colony in ye norther parts of Virginia… covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick…”
The Pilgrims settled at Plymouth in order to advance the Christian faith. They celebrated the first Thanksgiving to give thanks to God for His blessings. We weren’t there when it happened, but let us never neglect their spirit of gratitude. “The earth has produced its harvest; God our God blesses us… and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.” (Psalm 67:6-7, HCSB.)
Copyright 2011 by Bob Rogers
Bob Rogers 