Taste for Yourself

I remember eating a meal as a kid at Aunt Bonnie’s house. There was always the encouragement to eat everything on my plate, or I couldn’t have dessert. I remember thinking about it for a moment and wondering if it was worth it to eat all my vegetables just to get dessert. So I asked, “What are we having for dessert?” The reply from Uncle Lloyd was, “Turnip Green Pie.”  I am positive I have never tasted turnip green pie and hopefully there is not such a dish that I will ever have to taste. It’s one of those things that I can tell without tasting, I wouldn’t like it. To this day the very thought of turnip green pie doesn’t set will with my taste buds.

David wrote in the Psalms, “Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that takes refuge in him.” Of course David’s meaning is an invitation for us to actually experience God to see that he is good. One contemporary writer insists that the sense of taste is the most powerful, in that, we can see, smell, hear and touch something and still not be sure it is good for us, and that the real test is in the taste. So perhaps David is onto something when he encourages us to “Taste or experience for ourselves that the Lord is good.”

How about you? Has God passed your taste test? What does experiencing God taste like? Every individual might answer differently depending on their experiences, but there are some “fixed” attributes of God that we should all be eager to taste. So allow me to ask a few more questions.

Have you tasted God’s love? Since creation, the love of God toward his people has been evident. Even when we are less than lovable, He still loves us. In creation he showed his love in providing everything man needed. He was in relationship with man and the picture is one of perfection. But after man’s sin, God’s love is seen in his plan that was already in place to bring mankind back into a loving relationship with him. Just this one example shows God’s unending love for us.

Have you tasted God’s encouragement? In our busy world, it’s very easy to become discouraged. Business deals gone bad, friendships lost, marriages ending, financial destruction, and more can keep us discouraged. But God’s promise is to be with us and stand by us in the discouraging times.

Have you tasted God’s grace?  Grace brings out this demonstrative attribute in God’s dealings with mankind. He assures us it is by grace that we have been saved.  To a life that by human standards would be without hope and show no signs of ever amounting to anything, God sees the great potential of a life that has experienced his grace. The complete brokenness from not being able to save ourselves causes us to cry out in despair and God answers with his grace.

Three examples where we can taste and see the goodness of our God; and these are the tip of the iceberg. The more we know God, the more we have the invitation to taste and see his goodness. We celebrate in what we have tasted when we come to the foot of the cross and experience the sacrifice of One who died in our place and whose victory over Satan and over death becomes our victory, too. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Note: This week we are featuring some of our most popular blogs from the Archives. Enjoy them again.  --RonB