Perhaps you know the Bible story about how Jesus multiplied a tiny amount of fish and bread so a mass number of people ended up being fed. Jesus prayed with Thanksgiving to God the Father for His miraculous provision of food. Know what strikes me? Instead of bowing down His head and closing His eyes like most people seem to do when they pray before a meal, He looked up to God in heaven and humbly thanked Him!
I wonder how much of the time we who follow Jesus do things the way other believers in Jesus do them assuming that is the one right way to do them. I grew up in a Jewish family that didn’t believe in God, so much of Christianity was foreign to me until decades later. When I first really paid attention to how Jesus’ followers prayed before a meal, I assumed it was mandatory that we bow our heads and close our eyes. But that is not how Jesus prayed before that miraculous meal!
What do you think our Thanksgiving to God would truly be like and look like if we let go of any traditions made by people and simply did what we believe is in line with the Bible and comes from our hearts yearning to bring God love, praise, honor, joy, pleasure, and glory? Writing this message really makes me think!
God wants us to worship Him “in spirit and in truth”, and I feel compelled to encourage you as well as myself to be sincere, genuine, and true & and to be totally devoted to God in our love for and Thanksgiving to Him. Even if that means looking up to heaven to THANK THE LORD before a meal! Hallelujah!
“And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled.” Mark 6:41-42 KJV
“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24 KJV