Taste and See that the Lord is Good

Today, I was reflecting on the difference our attitude makes. I work with some very joyful people. That doesn’t mean our lives don’t have struggles. That doesn’t mean that somehow God has shielded us from tragedy, waiting, or heartbreak. It simply means we know our God. We know He is in control. We know He placed us in this place to make a difference in His world. We know that worrying will never change the future. It merely steals the present from us.

By contrast, my mother was a self-proclaimed Olympic Worrier. She could become so consumed with the “What ifs” in life that she sometimes drowned in worry and couldn’t even get out of bed. I spent my life watching her miss the moments, big and small that summed up my childhood. Were times hard? Absolutely. Our family struggled perhaps more than others. The difference was that she knew she could have freedom from worry. She simply could not let go. While she never could allow herself to completely trust God, her struggle with faith shaped my life. My mother had all the information, she knew the scriptures. She even framed them and hung them all over her house. She taught them to others. She just couldn’t believe them for herself.

Trust is hard, especially when your life has been filled with people you should be able to trust who have hurt you. Here is the beautiful truth I hope your heart honestly hears today: God is trustworthy. He is also patient with our lack of faith and will not punish us for the baby steps we make. He never ridicules anyone who comes to Him with weak faith. Psalm 34:8 tells us, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”

Many of us struggle with the kind of faith that moves mountains, and that is okay. I believe that is why we are told to ‘taste’ the Lord. When you aren’t sure if something is good or nasty tasting, you take a small bite. Then, perhaps it isn’t bad, but you don’t know how good it is yet. Then, you take a bigger bite and another until you are consuming in rapid feasting. That is how God invites us to try Him. Trust Him with something small. When you see His faithfulness, trust Him with something bigger, and bigger, until you walk daily in complete – well tested – faith. When we do that, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10) will become our daily song and joy will overflow from our lives into the lives of others.

(Written by Keegan Harkins.)