Mid-Week Message - A Child's Prayer

"God is great.   God is good.  Let us thank Him for our food."  Is there anyone that didn't learn that prayer as a child?  Along with "now I lay me down to sleep" it was the first prayer I taught my daughter.  Maybe because it is a prayer for children we tend to dismiss it when we are older.  Too simple.  Surely the Lord would want us to pray something more meaningful.  

God is great.  Psalm 145:3 reads, "Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom."  Some translations say that His greatness is "unsearchable."  Think about that for a moment. The oceans are "great" but finite and can be searched.  God's greatness is infinite.  There is no end.  There is no way to measure it.  

God is good. We know that all good things come from Him.  We know that He causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called by Him.  If those two things are true, then by nature He must be good Himself.  In Mark, Jesus says that the Father is the only one that is good.  We have the testimony of the Son that the Father is good.  To me, that is beautiful!

Let us thank Him.  Because of His goodness and greatness, along with His mercy and grace, our needs are provided for, our prayers are heard, our tears are captured, our lives are blessed and our souls are eternal. We have the promise of Heaven before us with no sadness, no pain, no sickness and no death.  

For our food.  How precious that He knows just what we need when we need it.  Food is an ongoing need. We need it today and we'll need it tomorrow.  It sustains our physical bodies and comes directly from the One that created us.  Likewise, the shelter we have over our heads, the pillow we lay our head on at night, the clothing we wear, the love and compassion that each of us needs, comes from Him.  When we teach this little prayer, what we are actually doing is teaching our young ones to acknowledge that all of our needs are met by His great and good love for us.  

I challenge everyone to say this prayer at every meal for a week. As you do so, concentrate on the words. I believe you will find it as profound as I do.  God bless you.