“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:11 KJV)
Not long ago, I read about an animated television show that depicted a young boy and his family sitting at the dinner table. The young boy was being more or less forced against his will to pray the blessing over the meal by his parents. So, he sarcastically said, “Lord, thank You for this food even though we were the ones who worked to earn the money to buy it.”
Such a statement was obviously written into the script to elicit a laugh from an audience hostile towards God. When I read about it, I was reminded how there really are so many people who hold such a prideful attitude. They feel that they have been given nothing in this world and have earned everything that they have ever received.
The truth of the matter is that it does not matter how much money a person has nor how hard they have worked to earn it. If God had not created the plants and trees that would bear the fruit to feed us, we would starve. I knew of a man who would not lift a glass of water to his mouth without giving thanks to God. It wasn’t the monetary value of the water or the difficulty or ease with which he acquired it that caused him to give thanks. He was thankful to the One Who had created the water in the first place.
Whether we acknowledge Him or not, it is only by the grace of God that any of us has anything to eat. God created the fruits, grains, and even the animals who bear the meat that we consume in order to stay alive. No man is fed save by the Hand of God. Are you giving Him the credit that He deserves or are you supposing that you eat entirely through your own efforts?
To Jesus Christ goes all glory. In service to Him,
Loren
[This post was originally published July 19, 2009]
**Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) © The Lockman Foundation and are used by permission.
[If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ or you are not certain where you are headed when this life ends, I invite you to read the article “Am I Going To Heaven?“]
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