SOUL FOOD
Fifth of six
devotions in Let’s Talk series
Genesis
28:11: “When he [Jacob] reached a
certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it
under his head and lay down to sleep.”
Like food feeds the body, prayer
feeds the soul. People are accustomed to
eating three meals of food a day; perhaps we can squeeze in three meals of
prayer a day? It’s simple to remember:
Grace before food, “Grace” is prayer-food time.
Shacharit for morning, mincha for
afternoon prayer, and ma’ariv for evening are Jewish names for daytime prayers. Jewish teaching shows that each one of the
Christian patriarchs inspire a specific time of day for prayer.
Abraham’s prayer wakes up the
morning in Genesis 19:27. “Early the
next morning Abraham got up and went to the place where he stood before the
Lord.” Morning times are bright and
sunny (shining). We thank our Father for
the hope He provides with this new day.
We can agree to rejoice and be glad in this new day (when everything is
good; and especially when things are bad).
Abraham brings shacharit breakfast
hope and joy.
Isaac inspires afternoon
prayer. “He [Isaac] went out to the field
one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.”
Genesis 24:63. Afternoons are busiest. However, Isaac offers inner strength to our
days. He purposely disconnects from busy
and spends private time with the Father.
He reminds us that we’re never too busy to NOT spend time before our
Lord in prayer.
Isaac delivers our bagged mincha “lunchtime
to go” of breakaway time with the Father.
The opening Scripture passage shows
Jacob’s accidental-on-purpose divinely-inspired place to sleep. He “just happened” to stop at the holy site
of Mount Mariah as darkness fell. A
hidden meaning suggests that Jacob endured the most hardship, gravity and
uncertainty in life. After bribing twin
brother Esau out of his birthright for food, Jacob later tricked his father
into giving him Esau’s blessing. Sow-Reap:
Jacob hadn’t heard from a prophet of God because his life was spent grieving after
being deceived of the death of his favorite son Joseph. (Genesis 37:3-35).
Jacob teaches us to pray during the
darkest time of the day. But dinner time
is also restful time that is labelled ma’ariv.
We praise the Father for seeing us safely through our day.
Take Home Nugget
Certainly, God wants to hear from
His kids anytime. It is people who carve
out the tiniest sliver of time dedicated only for Him. Altogether, our Judeo-Christian faith was
shaped by these patriarchs. Perhaps they
could inspire us to pray more often?
Patriarchs teach prayer time throughout each
day.
This devotion is adapted from Food for the Soul from “Holy Land
Moments Daily” Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. November 19, 2015.
J.D. Griffith
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