There is a saying that tells us a person eats with their eyes first. The visual presentation allows the person on the receiving end to soak in what they are about to experience. Picture a buffet laden with all of your favorite foods. The sight alone leaves you salivating but you quickly learn complete satisfaction comes when you taste the bounty. The experience is not complete unless you taste and see. One action depends on the other for enjoyment.
Now imagine what life is like when you see something but you can’t touch it. Or you hear a beautiful melody but have no idea what the source is. How about a plate of your favorite food within arms reach that you are not allowed to taste. Do you see the dilemma and sense the tension when one aspect is available but another is kept from you?
God graciously invites us to taste and see through these words from David.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
Fear the Lord, you his godly people,
for those who fear him will have all they need.
Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry,
but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:8-10 NLT)
God promises me goodness in knowing Him and in the tasting of a life with Him. It is a both/and invitation in which I live with the person of God and in this place I experience a truth that leads me home. My relationship deepens as God refines my palate to embrace and understand His goodness. The process is similar to how a baby is introduced to new foods. The baby learns to see and taste and recognize new foods. He/she then develops a like or dislike for the food.
Let’s take it a step further. Just like you and I refine our taste buds, babies begin to crave the foods they like until the desire becomes greater than the food itself. I know I fall into this trap of craving foods believing that eating more of said food will satisfy the longing. Can you say “hello chocolate”? But what if we take this same theory and apply it to God and the Gospel?
Taste and see comes to life when it is applied to God’s truth. As His child, God provides multiple opportunities daily to experience and perceive the truth of who He is. The more we are exposed to love, truth, and grace, the more we crave God’s goodness. It’s contagious!
Bill Johnson, God is Good, says it like this:
If you’ll taste it for yourself, you’ll see it more clearly. Your perception of truth will increase as you experience truth more deeply.
The beauty of the concept of “taste and see” is finding satisfaction in Jesus. He promises our appetites will be satiated when we seek fulfillment in Him. The fourth beatitude says it like this:
God is the Hope we long for, the daily bread that nourishes us, and the goodness we crave. #tasteandsee #TellHisStory #linkup Click To TweetYou’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. (Matthew 5:6 MSG)
We lack nothing when we put our trust in Jesus. He takes little and makes it into much. When we crave more, Jesus leads us to nourishment and fills our being with “spiritual milk.” (1 Peter 2:2) Our hearts beat in rhythm with God’s as we seek to grow in deeper relationship with Him. And every step we take toward God allows us to taste and see for ourselves. In this process, we become “contagious representatives of God’s goodness.” (Bill Johnson, God is Good.)
Let’s believe together that as we taste and see of the goodness of the Lord, we find not only satisfaction but contentment. In Him, we find all we need. God is the Hope we long for, the daily bread that nourishes us, and the goodness we crave.
Blessings,
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
***Join me here next week for our featured writer–Dr. Michelle Bengston. She is a beautiful writer as well as a neuropsychologist. Her first book, Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor’s Personal Journey through Depression has a companion bible study. Her next book, Breaking Anxiety’s Grip: How to Reclaim the Peace God Promises releases September 17, 2019.
I love Psalm 34 so much and especially the taste and see part. “Let’s believe together that as we taste and see of the goodness of the Lord, we find not only satisfaction but contentment.” Amen! Once upon a time I had memorized the whole chapter, but not sure much of it remains today. 🙂 But taste and see still does.
Amen to contentment. I admire you for memorizing scripture. It is so lovely to know how God invites us to taste and see of His goodness.
Love that passage – and so great He invites us to know him and taste him. Thanks, Mary
I love that passage too. Here’s to our invitation to taste and see and enjoy the goodness of God.
Working up a good appetite for God. I love that translation and can definitely relate to it! laurensparks.net
The Message has a way of speaking the right words at the right time for me. I am so glad to see you here today.
Just had a great spiritual meal! I am more then satisfied!
Bless you,
Jennifer
Savoring God and His truth is the best meal we could ask for. I am blessed that you stopped by and joined the conversation.
mmm …
tasting well requires time and space to savor, to be fully present in the moment.
i need more of that with the Lord. each day.
thanks for the spiritual nudge, friend …
Time and space – my greatest nemesis! But it is worth it when I do make the space to just be with God. He loves the time with me and the chance to grow our relationship. Praying you are having a marvelous summer.
He is the Great Contentment!!! O! Taste and See!
Yes, He is! It is glorious to know God is sweet nourishment for each of us.
So often I spend my days living in the lack (or my perception of it.) But this: “We lack nothing when we put our trust in Jesus.”
We can live confident and full in all we have in Him
Yes, we can live confident and full in God. He is the Great Provider for us all. I pray you find sweet fullness as you taste and see of God’s goodness.
Mary, what a great post!
I found your line interesting: “My relationship deepens as God refines my palate to embrace and understand His goodness.”
It is true, the longer i know Him the more I see He has given me good things – I just wasn’t mature enough to recognize it at the time!
Isn’t it an exciting thought what we well get to “taste and see” when we get Home?
God knows the timing of what we need and reveals it to us then. I can look at my own faith journey and see how my relationship with God has changed and grown stronger as I desire to know more of Him. I am looking forward to going home and tasting and seeing the goodness firsthand.
I am so grateful for these words today, as God continues to call me into a place of resting and waiting. He is enough, and MORE than enough there. Thank you, Dear Mary, for this precious reminder today. Blessings and Hugs
I am grateful that God gave you an opportunity to stop by here. I am praying for you in your resting and waiting knowing God’s presence and provision is more than enough. Love you, Friend!
What a great reminder to start my day here, Mary! Well said and full of truth. I think He longs for us to crave, taste, and see. Too often some look at a Bible and assume it is going to be nothing but vegetables they never liked growing up and they never discover the bountiful table within the pages that grants us a more accurate picture of Him. His invitation is so gentle…”taste and see”…prayerfully more will accept it.
God desires relationship with us and one of the ways He does that is His invitation to taste and see. I agree that when we spend more time in God’s Word, we find such bounty to nourish our souls. Let’s all prayerfully ask for more people to taste and see and find the goodness of God in their own lives.
Beautiful and flavorful post, Mary. 🙂 Love this thought, “The more we are exposed to love, truth, and grace, the more we crave God’s goodness. It’s contagious!” When my kids were little, they often decided they didn’t like a food just by how it looked, beans for example. I counseled them time and time again the only way to know for sure is the taste test. And oh how the Lord always passes the taste test!
I remember those days of picky taste buds. Many times my sons did not even taste before they made up their minds. I love how you expressed how God always passes the taste test. Isn’t it nice to know that more we crave God’s goodness the more contagious it becomes? Thanks for stopping by.
I am so prone to getting things backwards that I find myself operating from a “see and taste” mentality with the will of God. Your words invite me to enjoy the banquet of his love and to go forward in faith, knowing that true faith doesn’t insist on having all the answers before obeying.
I get that line of thinking. I see everything first because I am so visual but sometimes it is at the expense of experiencing more deeply.I am joining you today in enjoying the complete banquet of God’s goodness. Thank you, Michele for sharing your perspective.
Mary,
As one who can be an emotional eater, I have found that when I experience certain emotions, my thoughts turn to food. Unfortunately, it’s worldly food I turn to instead of spiritual food. Worldly only satisfies for a few minutes, whereas spiritual food satisfies for a lifetime. God doesn’t just show us the banquet, He invites us to taste and experience just how good it is!
Blessings,
Bev xx
Oh what a beautiful post for my first of the day!! Oh taste and see that He is so very good, His strength sustains me!
Hi April! So glad to have you here. It is so reassuring to know how God allows us to taste and see of His goodness and in the process we grow deeper in relationship with Him. Blessings on the rest of your week.
I am also an emotional eater. It is easy to forget how God will always satisfy our hunger. I pray we both find all we need when we taste and see of the goodness of God.
What a blessing that God creates this craving within us and then satisfies us with Himself.
It is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? May we all crave more of God as we seek to taste and see His goodness.
Mary, I so enjoyed this post. It made me think about, how when we crave to know God more it’s like He carves our deeper spaces within us to experience more of Him. So we never get enough of His presence, of learning about who He is. He’s probably the one craving that I can never get too much of.
You described it beautifully. God does provide a space within us for His presence and the opportunity to experience Him more deeply. That’s the beauty of taste and see. It is a both/and invitation and it allows us to know God more intimately.