I am taking a short break from the Prayer series. The next folks that I will be sharing with you is Isaac and Rachael and their twins sons, Esau and Jacob. This will also be an interesting path to go down. For this post though, I am going to share a short one this time about a prayer that a lot of us have heard most of our life. I wrote this last year sometime and thought it appropriate for now. Enjoy!
Remember when you were a child and you were learning to pray? Maybe you didn’t learn when you were young. Maybe you have heard a little child pray this prayer at meal time though. “God is Great, God is Good, Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” What is that really saying? Let’s break it down a bit.
First, God is Great. If we speak this as a child we have no idea how great until we have a little experience under our belt. God is great and we know this because we have experienced His Greatness! In the power of the storms, in the beauty of a tiny flower and the majesty of all of His creation. How wonderful it is to serve a Great God!
Psalm 145:1-3
I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.
Second, God is Good. God is so good. He is a righteous and just God. He is Love! He runs after us to bring us to Him! He never lets us go. He wants to spend eternity with us so He went so far as to send His only Perfect Son to earth to live among us so we could relate to Him better. And then His Son – Jesus – went so far as to die on a cruel cross and went to hell and overcame death so we would not have to die and be separated from Him. Oh My… what a Savior!
Psalm 136:1
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Thirdly, Let us thank Him for our food. He provides our every need. We must have faith and trust His provision and His timing. He is! He will provide. I love the names of God. The one I can relate to in the last 4 years is Jehovah Jireh. Lord our Provider!
Philippians 4:19
19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Lastly, Amen. This is the definition of Amen… “so be it!: a term used at the end of a prayer or religious statement, is a declaration of affirmation”
n
- (Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) the use of the word amen, as at the end of a prayer
say amen to express strong approval of or support for (an assertion, hope, etc.)
So now you know…
The Song – Jesus What A Savior – Singing Men of North Central Texas
Video – Jesus What A Savior You Are – Christ for the Nations
abidinginthevine.net
When we were children, my brother and I recited this prayer every night before supper: “God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for this food.” For years I spoke the words of this prayer without stopping to consider what life would be like if it were not true—if God were not both great and good.
Without His greatness maintaining order in the universe, the galaxies would be a junkyard of banged-up stars and planets. And without His goodness saying “enough” to every evil despot, the earth would be a playground ruled by the biggest bully.
That simple childhood prayer celebrates two profound attributes of God: His transcendence and His immanence. Transcendence means that His greatness is beyond our comprehension. Immanence describes His nearness to us. The greatness of the almighty God sends us to our knees in humility. But the goodness of God lifts us back to our feet in grateful, jubilant praise. The One who is above everything humbled Himself and became one of us (Psalm 135:5; Philippians 2:8).
Thank God that He uses His greatness not to destroy us but to save us, and that He uses His goodness not as a reason to reject us but as a way to reach us.
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious—Thy great name we praise. —Smith
When you taste God’s goodness, His praise will be on your lips.
odb.org
