Demonstrating Our Faith through Prayer

Acts 27:33-38

English Standard Version (ESV)

³³ As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. ³⁴ Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength,^[a] for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” ³⁵ And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶ Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. ³⁷ (We were in all 276^[b] persons in the ship.) ³⁸ And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+27%3A33-38&version=ESV)

As I read this passage, The Last Supper came to my mind. Luke 22:19English Standard Version (ESV)  ¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Paul did not say those exact words but He did give thanks and what he said before they took of the bread is what reminds me of the Lord’s supper, “For it will give you strength”.  Jesus did not use those exact words either but we find in Isaiah that He does give us strength. 

Isaiah 40:28-29English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Our strength comes from the Lord, something we should not forget.  Each day I pray before I eat.  Some may say that is a tradition but I do not.  I believe the Bible is clear in saying that we should pray and thank the One that gives us the strength through our food.  By doing this we should daily be reminded of what Christ has done for us.  Jesus did this practice and Paul did as well, I can hardly call that just a tradition.  Is there evidence in our Bible that it is necessary to pray before we eat?  No.  It is not specifically spelled out in the Bible that we must do this.  Jesus only gives us two things to do, as found in  Matthew 22:37-39 English Standard Version (ESV), Jesus speaking, “ ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A37-39&version=ESV.

To this I say, if we truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, then we should recognize and thank Him for what He has given us.  If we love our neighbor, we should demonstrate Christ’s love to us.  Paul did this.  Through his obedience to Christ those on the ship were strengthened.  His prayer demonstrated to them the faith that Paul had in Christ.

Seek Him daily and thank Him daily for the strength that He gives to you.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila