2. “He Done Prayed My Hot Dog Cold!”
2
“He Done Prayed My Hot Dog Cold!”
Here is a generic version of a story that was told to me by a man who was at the event (the details have been deleted to protect this author and the people who were involved):
At the annual conference of an evangelical mission board, while the women were at a fancy tea, the men and children gathered to enjoy an old-fashioned outdoor wiener roast. As we all know, at informal picnic gatherings, protocol demands that somebody ask the blessing before the guests visit the tables and fill their plates. But on this occasion, the leader had the picnickers get their food first, and then he asked the guest speaker to pray. The good man prayed his way up and down the Himalayas and around the equator, and when he finally said, “Amen,” everybody heard a young boy say very loudly to his father, “Daddy, he done prayed my hot dog cold!”
In a similar vein, I heard the story of an air force cadet who wasn’t ashamed of his faith, so at meals he would reverently bow his head, close his eyes, and pray silently for several minutes. One day while he was praying, somebody stole his plate and hid it. Did he ever get it back? I hope so, but I really don’t know. If he did, he had probably prayed his rations cold.
As Paul wrote in Galatians 4:24, these figurative illustrations “are an allegory” (KJV), so let’s try to garner from them some truths to help us in our own prayer lives.
To begin with, why do we pray before we eat? I once asked a group of college students that question, and they roared with laughter. One of them said, “If you saw the food we’re served in the dining room, you’d pray too!” (I don’t think that’s true anymore. I’ve eaten excellent meals in college dining rooms.) In another instance, I remember a missionary leader who sometimes ended his table prayer with “And, Lord, kill the bugs.” Well, he knew the situation better than we did. But back to our question: Why do we pray before we eat?
Obviously, we’re giving thanks to the Lord for the food He’s provided for us. We’re grateful to God. Jesus taught us to pray for daily bread, and when the bread is before us, we want to be thankful for God’s gifts and for His faithfulness in caring for us. Before Jesus fed the five thousand, He looked up to heaven and prayed (Mark 6:41), and He also gave thanks at the Last Supper (Mark 14:22; 1 Cor. 11:24). Paul gave thanks for his food while he was on board a ship during a storm, and it encouraged the passengers and crew to eat and to trust God (Acts 27:35–36).
First Timothy 4:1–5 warns us not to follow false teachers who ignore what Jesus taught in Mark 7 and what the early church decided in Acts 15, that all foods are clean and should be received with thanksgiving. That’s what Paul meant when he wrote, “It [the food] is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:5). The Scriptures say the food is “clean,” and prayer consecrates the food to the Lord so that He can use it to sustain us. (That doesn’t mean that all foods are good for all of us. If you’re diabetic, as I am, it will take more than the Word and prayer to make a big piece of key lime pie “clean” for us!)
My heritage is Swedish and German, and very early on I learned that my Scandinavian relatives also gave thanks after the meal. After enjoying coffee, homemade cake, and bilingual conversation, my uncle Simon Carlson would bow his head and give thanks in Swedish, and that was the signal that the meal had ended. As a child, I thought this was a strange practice, until years later when I read Deuteronomy 8:10: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.” Thanking God after the meal is an excellent discipline for people who are prone to eat too much during the meal, for how can they sincerely give thanks for those extra pounds they just put on? (I’m writing myself under conviction.)
It appears, then, that a table prayer is first of all an expression of thanks to the Lord for His gracious provision. It’s also a consecration of the food and of ourselves as God’s children, who are strengthened by the food so that we may serve and glorify God. If God provides food for my body and wants to be glorified in and through my body, then not to thank Him for food is base ingratitude. So is enjoying that food and then using my body in any way I please. A table prayer ought to be much more than a religious ritual. As we join our hearts with the one who is leading us in prayer, we should make it a time of both gratitude and dedication to the Lord.
So, then, how long should a table prayer be? Answer: long enough to accomplish the two purposes we just covered—gratitude and dedication to the Lord.
But what if the Spirit leads us to pray longer? Answer: “The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets” (1 Cor. 14:32). If that’s true of people who preach, would it not also be true of people who pray? After all, if the preacher or the person who is praying really is Spirit filled, he or she will produce the fruit of the Spirit, which includes self-control. People who lose control aren’t filled with the Spirit; they are fooled by other spirits and following the flesh.
More than once in my conference ministry, I’ve experienced the truth of John 10:8: “All who have come before me are thieves and robbers.” The speakers who went before me took more time than was allotted to them, and I was left with very little time for presenting the message I’d prepared. After the meeting, these speakers would excuse their thievery by saying, “You know, when the Spirit’s in control, you just have to keep going.” But the Spirit was not in control, or they would have exercised self-control and watched the clock. Many years of radio ministry have taught me to say what I have to say right the first time and not waste expensive radio minutes circling the field and looking for a place to land. What applies to preaching should also apply to prayer.
Evangelist George Whitfield said of a certain preacher, “He prayed me into a good frame of mind, and if he had stopped there, it would have been very well; but he prayed me out of it again by keeping on.” During one of his evangelistic campaigns, Dwight L. Moody asked a minister to lead in prayer, and the man went on and on and on, and people began to leave the hall. Moody finally said, “While our brother is finishing his prayer, we shall sing a hymn.” Moody didn’t want the well-meaning preacher to pray the meeting cold. And didn’t Jesus have something to say about people who try to impress us with long prayers (Matt. 23:14 KJV)?
It surprises some people to learn that the Lord sometimes tells people to stop praying. When Israel came to the Red Sea after their exodus from Egypt, Moses was silently crying out to God for help as he tried to still the people. The Lord knew this and said to him, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on” (Exod. 14:15). Stop praying and get moving! (More than one church needs to hear that command.)
After the Lord told Moses he was not allowed to enter Canaan (Num. 20:1–13), Moses prayed for God to remove that discipline and let him go into the land. (I get the impression that Moses prayed this prayer frequently.) One day the Lord told Moses to drop the matter from his prayer list, and he obeyed (Deut. 3:23–39).
Following the humiliating defeat of Israel at Ai (Josh. 7), Joshua tore his clothes, fell on his face, and spent all day crying out to God. God’s response was “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?” (Josh. 7:10). There was a traitor in the camp, and God expected Joshua to help expose him.
After Paul had prayed three times for healing, the Lord graciously stopped him and promised to give him grace to turn his burden into a blessing.
In my own prayer experience, several times I’ve been praying about some matter only to have the Lord convince me after a few weeks that it was time to stop. Either the request was out of His will or the answer was on its way. I didn’t know then which it was, but I obediently stopped praying and later found out the result. Sometimes the red light flashes from a statement in the Bible. On other occasions, the signal is just a conviction in my heart, given, I trust, by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, there’s a time to pray, but there’s also a time to act, for the Lord wants us to be a part of the answer to our prayers. I’ll say more about this when we get to part 4 and take inventory of our prayers.
Let’s hear the conclusion of the matter. If you are called to give God thanks for a meal, simply ask Him to bless the gifts and the recipients. Stick to that agenda and don’t go on detours. If you have special burdens on your heart and feel led to share them, perhaps you could do so after the meal and request that someone pray with you. If the other diners aren’t in a hurry, you might remain at the table for a brief prayer meeting after the meal.
I’m sure that God can bless a cold hot dog, but why expect Him to do it? For that matter, God can perform a miracle and keep a hot dog warm while somebody’s praying at length, but He never wastes miracles. Expecting that approach is very near to tempting God.
Make every meal a holy and happy occasion. Remember what Moses and the elders experienced on Mt. Sinai: “They saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exod. 24:11). The experience of the two Emmaus disciples was similar. Jesus gave thanks and broke the bread, and “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (Luke 24:31).
To quote Spurgeon again, “When you pray in public, as a rule, the shorter the better.” 1