As a child I was taught to pray, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food. By his hands we all are fed. Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen.”
That prayer is deceptively simple. It is easy to say, yet it says so much.
God Is Great
In saying, “God is great,” we aren’t praising God like Tony the Tiger praises Frosted Flakes. Rather, to speak of God’s greatness is to talk about God’s authority and power. His greatness is his right to rule and his power over all things. As the prophet Daniel says, “His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35).
Paul the apostle says the same: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Rom. 11:33-36).
God’s greatness is opposed directly by those who say that God is weak or unable to help us. Even some Christians talk as if God were a needy old man who can’t do much without our help. Yet we forget that God made the universe and needs nothing from us. “
He is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25). He gives us life and breath and all things. We need God; he doesn’t need us. (But he does want us—Rev. 4:11.) God is great!
Let Us Thank Him
It’s no accident that the next line in the children’s prayer is a response of gratitude. Gratitude is one of the main fruits of faith, for all those who trust that God is great and God is good can’t help but thank him. That is why Paul writes, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17).
And being thankful isn’t just some duty to be done. It is a sign that we understand who we are in the presence of God. We are sinful beggars in the presence of a holy king. We don’t deserve anything, yet he gives us everything (Jas. 1:17).
This can’t help but make us thankful! In fact, it may be a sign that we don’t truly understand the gospel if we aren’t thankful people. After all, the attitude of entitlement is the opposite disposition of a heart that has freely received the costly grace of God.