God desires to speak to us, and He often does so through personal experiences. A couple of weeks ago, I posted my first youtube video. It was about a God encounter I had when I was surrounded by dragonflies. After I posted the video I realized that although the message was clear, the glare had made it difficult to see the dragonflies that were swarming in the trees.
Knowing that others would not be able to experience what I had experienced made me think about chocolate. Let me explain.
If the only encounter you or I ever have with a bar of chocolate is hearing someone else describe their experience, our understanding would be very limited. We might know what chocolate looks like. We may even be holding a list of its ingredients. If we are familiar with sugar, we would even know that it would be sweet. But unless we actually bit into the bar and personally tasted its distinct flavor and felt it melt in our mouths, we wouldn’t truly experience chocolate.
It’s the same with the Lord. The Bible tells us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” You and I must have a desire for something before we taste it. When it comes to hearing God, it’s easy to try to live off other’s experiences, instead of tasting His goodness for ourselves. Don’t get me wrong. I love to hear testimonies! They inspire me. But if you and I only learn about God through the God encounters of others, we will never truly know God’s heart for us or learn how to hear His voice.
The Lord cloaked Himself in humanity so we could have an intimate relationship with Him. He wants to walk and talk with us every day. His beauty surrounds us, and so does His presence. But our vision is sometimes limited because of the glare.
Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary defines glare as (to shine with a harsh uncomfortably brilliant light) or (to stare angrily or fiercely.) Both of these definitions can explain why people are often blinded to God’s goodness and unaware of His presence.
If we believe that God is harsh, uncomfortable, angry, or fierce, we will either try to hide from Him, or we will exhaust ourselves doing good works to try to earn His approval. Both will keep us from tasting His goodness.
When the Samaritan woman ran to share her testimony, she didn’t just tell the town’s people about her Savior, she invited the people to experience the Messiah for themselves. “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”John 4:29 (NKJV). The people followed her to Jesus. After Jesus had spent a few days with the townspeople, many more heard his message and believed: “Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but we have heard Him for ourselves'” John 4:42(NKJV).
God wants us to experience Him. Not just hear about Him. He wants to be our Father; not just our Creator. He wants to open our hearts, our eyes, and our ears so we can enjoy Him. He wants us to experience life with Him and through Him. Oh! May we taste for ourselves and see…His goodness…His love…His kindness…His compassion…His heart! May we delight in Him. His presence is so much sweeter than chocolate!
May you be abundantly blessed!
Jeannie
Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (NIV).