One of my friends greatly impacted the way I think about food just by the way he prayed for his meals! His prayers showed me three ways to think about food that I hadn’t really considered before. Little did he know, God also worked through his example to rescue me from what could have developed into an eating disorder.
I want to share with you these three simple attitudes toward food that ultimately come to us from God’s Word. My prayer is that these three ways to think about food may help you also honor God in this seemingly small—but actually very big—part of your life.
Three Ways to Think About Food
So here are three ways to think about food that may help you maintain a healthy relationship with what you put into your body, but more importantly, may help you live more mindful of God’s goodness and love, and more ready to praise him for it.
1. Food tells us something about God
Do you know that food reveals something about the God who made it?
Okay, okay, that’s a stretch, you may think.
By that statement, I am not trying to be theologically nerdy, I promise. Food really does reveal to us the character of God!
This is the thought my friend offered me that changed my life, and here’s how he shared it with me. Whenever he would pray over a meal, he would say something along these lines:
Lord, thank you for giving us such great foods to enjoy—so many different kinds of foods—and for showing us your creativity and love through the food you provide.
I had never thought like this before! The variety of foods we enjoy reflect the creativity of God. God made everything that’s edible and all the raw ingredients we need to make all things edible.
Food Reveals God’s Creativity
Think of the diversity of God’s creativity—fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices, grains, livestock, and more!
God made goats and cows, chickens and lobsters, strawberries and bananas, watermelons and grapes, cumin and oregano, wheat and nuts and potatoes…!
Pause on the potatoes for a moment.
My small group leader’s favorite ice breaker is, “What is your favorite form of potato?” Think about how many ways you can eat a potato—chips, French fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato soup, hashbrowns, etc. God gave us an excellent gift in the potato, and that’s just one kind of sustenance!
God made it; we enjoy it. But he didn’t make food just because he was bored and decided the earth would be a nice canvas to host a plethora of fruits and vegetables.
He made food for us.
Food Reveals God’s Kindness
When God opened the fridge—or the world, rather—for the first man, he said, “I give you…” (Genesis 1:29 NIV). Then, when he introduced meat into the human diet, he said, “Just as I gave you…, I now give you…” (Genesis 9:3 NIV). When we turn to the book of Psalms, we get a window into God’s heart when he gave us the gift of food to enjoy. Psalm 104 says,
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts. (Psalm 104:14-15 NIV)
God made plants for us to cultivate, that we might “bring forth food from the earth.” His gave us much more than sustenance for survival, though. See how this verse reveals God’s kindness?
He gave us food, drink, and earthly resources to strengthen us, make our faces shine, and gladden our hearts. He knew food would affect his complex image bearers (Genesis 1:26) far beyond fueling their body. When he gave us this sustenance, he gave us all the joy that comes with it.
James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect thing is from above. That includes every food you find good and perfect.
Food reveals to us the creativity and kindness of God, who weaves joy into our existence, and who provides so richly and generously for one of our most basic needs.
That favorite flavor of ice cream, crisp cucumber, ruby-red apple, or juicy watermelon in the summertime is a gift from God to you, and an expression of his joyful, creative, and generous heart. When you look at your meal, remember its Creator, your Creator. Remember his creativity and his kindness.
2. Food is a gift from God
Food is a great gift from God to enjoy, but food is also, obviously, necessary for our survival. I want you to see that food isn’t just an opportunity to rejoice in God’s kindness, it also creates an opportunity to depend on God for his provision.
In his mealtime prayers, my friend would also pray that God would nourish and strengthen us for whatever God had planned for us that day. Food also has this function: it’s fuel to strengthen our bodies.
I want to further this point by sharing with you a short testimony.
The Danger of Rejecting God’s Gift of Food
I was sad. In fact, I was so sad that I did not want to eat. I didn’t consciously refuse food; my body did, and vehemently so by throwing a bit of nausea at me every morning. So, I ate—but less than normal, really without thinking about it.
Soon I noticed myself slimming down a bit. Wow that’s nice, I thought. And in an insecure time, I started wanting to stay “that” slim, so I kept eating less than normal, even when my stomach stopped troubling me.
A few days of extra fatigue at the gym and the note that my friend was hospitalized for an eating disorder woke me up. I NEED FOOD!
I need lots of food, as someone who enjoys exercising a lot. When I looked back honestly, I recognized that I was starting to starve myself without consciously realizing it. My simple definition of “starve yourself” is “not eat as much food as you should.” I wasn’t fueling my body enough for the activity I was putting it through.
We have limits that God has lovingly placed on us to humble us and to invite us to depend on him. My need for food is a loving tap on the shoulder from the Lord to remember point number one—the good and generous and caring character of my heavenly Father. My need for food is also a loving tap on the shoulder from the Lord to remind me of point number two—I am a creature with limitations, and I need God’s care in constant ordinary ways. Receiving the food I need from God is a way that I rest in his care for me.
When we refuse to eat, we are refusing care from our heavenly Father, who has provided for and wants to meet our needs. We are also rebelling against our need for him.
Not only is there danger in rejecting food from God; there’s also danger in letting food become more to us than strength, nourishment, and a gift to enjoy.
The Danger of Replacing God with His Gift of Food
Like any of God’s gifts, we can begin to desire food over God or let it take his place. The Bible calls this idolatry—when we give our hearts and our service to something God has made, rather than God himself (Romans 1:21-23).
It may sound funny to say that we worship food in God’s place, but think of how we go to food as a coping mechanism for big emotions, or as a source of joy, or as something we “seek first,” prioritizing it above all else, and giving hordes of excess time to it.
When we eat too much, which the Bible calls gluttony, we are no longer receiving food as a gift to sustain us, but instead we are looking to it to meet a deeper need for comfort or pleasure that only God can provide. When we chronically overeat rather than starve ourselves, food becomes a god or a master whom we serve and are enslaved to, rather than something from God designed to serve our needs.
Receive God’s Gift and Praise the Giver
Thankfully, God has set us free from all our sin and its destructive habits through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross for us and his resurrection (Romans 6:6-7; Romans 8:2). God has made it possible for us to live well and honor him in the way we eat, because of what Jesus has done for us (1 Peter 2:24).
If you’re tempted not to eat as much as you should, ask God to forgive you for refusing one of his precious gifts to you, and to help you receive food as the strengthening fuel for your body he intends it to be. Ask him to help you receive food as an extension of his care for you.
If you’re tempted to eat too much, ask God to forgive you for giving into the lie that his creation can do more for you than he can. Ask him to help you run to him and give you the faith to believe that he wants to comfort you and bring you joy and can reach the place where food cannot go—your soul.
Ask him to help you receive food as a gift, and to transform your mind and heart so that it points you to worship the Giver.
3. Food is a reminder to pray
God made food. God made it for us to fuel our bodies and gave it to us as a gift to enjoy. So we should thank him! Every time we eat food, we receive a gift—what a fantastic opportunity to pray, beginning with a prayer of thanks. This is our third point—eating food is a wonderful opportunity to come to God in prayer.
My friend seldom forgot to pray before meals, and his prayers were not quick, scripted, or routine. They were intentional, slow, and thoughtful. A mealtime prayer was not a ritual for him, but a relational act.
You can honor God every time you eat food, not only by pausing to thank him for it, but by taking the opportunity to seek him in prayer. God is not a relationship we restrict to “morning Bible-reading time” and “mealtime prayers.” We have an ever-present God who is at our side always by his Spirit (Psalm 46:1; John 14:16), and we “seek his presence continually” (Psalm 105:4).
Every moment of the day is an opportunity to relate to God. Perhaps eating food is a God-given wake-up call to this truth of God’s ever-presence, poking us with the reminder that God is there to be sought, called upon, loved, worshipped, and honored.
Whenever you eat, may you think to pray, and not just in thanks for your meal, but for whatever is on your heart.
Three Ways to Think About Food
So much more could be said about food. It is a huge theme of the Bible, and it is a big part of our lives. I hope that these three simple points—that food tells us something about God, that it is a gift from God, and that it is a reminder to pray—will alter your perspective slightly as they altered mine, so that you might give glory to God each time you eat.
When you eat, rejoice in God’s kind character, demonstrated in the diversity and pleasure of what he has provided for you.
When you eat, receive your food with gratitude, and aim to honor God by receiving the food you need as fuel for your body, that you might receive his care and be sufficiently strengthened to do all he has called you to do.
And when you sit down to eat and think to “give thanks,” remember you are talking to God who is so much more to you than just the one who gives you food. Choose to take the opportunity to talk to him as a friend.
May you enjoy food more because you see it as a gift of love and an initiation of friendship from the good God who gave it to you.