Taste And See

Taste And See

Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who trust in him! –Psalm 34:8

Why is it that when someone in the family suspects the milk in the fridge has gone bad, he or she wants you to taste it, just to confirm the suspicion? I’ll take your word for it! I want to say. Why would I want to taste it if it is sour?

Holding on to hurt and plotting your revenge is like choosing to chug a carton of sour milk. As the rotten stuff works its way through the facets of your personality, everything takes on that sour smell, taste, and temperament. The bitterness takes root inside you, coming out in the form of distrust, insecurity, criticism, guilt, anger, suspicion, and fear.

So if something has happened that left a bad taste in your mouth, how are you going to get rid of it? How are you going to keep the bitterness from taking root in your heart? Peter wrote, “So get rid of all malicious behavior and deceit. Don’t just pretend to be good! Be done with hypocrisy and jealousy and backstabbing. You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cries for milk, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness” (1 Peter 2:1-3). His suggested antidote for the taste of bitterness is to crave the goodness of God.

You have tasted the Lord’s kindness, haven’t you? Can you remember how it tasted? Nurture that taste memory and spit the acid bitterness out. Fellowship with God tastes so much sweeter than the sourness of resentment and revenge. And the truth is, you can’t have both. Either your bitterness will kill your appetite for his sweetness, or his sweetness will purify your bitterness. You simply can’t nurture your grudge and also enjoy God. Deep down you know that is true. So does your desire for revenge and the anticipation of another person’s humiliation or defeat taste so good that it is worth forfeiting a growing appetite for the goodness of God?

The cliché says that “time heals all wounds.” But it isn’t true. Only the goodness of God can get the taste of bitterness out of our mouths and the root of bitterness out of our hearts. Don’t waste another day. Won’t you taste and see how good God is and spit out the sourness in your spirit?

Sweet Savior, I thought revenge would be sweet, but it has turned so sour inside me. Increase my hunger for you, and take away the bitterness in me.

DIGGING DEEPER