Psalms 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
For many, God remains a theory—an idea borrowed from tradition, deduced from the cosmos, or tucked quietly into the corners of a creed. He is believed in from afar, but is rarely encountered. Even among believers, it’s not uncommon to live with a distant reverence for God while lacking a vibrant, personal communion with Him.
But Scripture offers something radically more intimate. God is not an abstract concept or a distant force. He is a Person—a loving Father who walks with His children, speaks to them, and invites them into His presence. The invitation is not to believe in a shadow or serve a principle, but to know Him. To experience Him. To taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).
This is not a poetic metaphor—it is the reality of the spiritual life. Just as we use our physical senses to engage the world around us, so we are equipped with spiritual faculties—quickened by the Holy Spirit—to perceive, respond to, and delight in God. His presence is not imaginary or symbolic. It is real—closer than the ground beneath our feet.
Have you settled for knowing about God without truly knowing Him? Is your faith limited to forms and facts instead of fellowship? The door to His presence stands open—not just in the life to come, but right here, right now.
Today, don’t settle for simply thinking about God. Taste and see that He is good. Reckon upon His reality—draw near in quiet trust and let your spiritual senses awaken. You were made for this: to encounter, enjoy, and walk with the living God.
This is the kind of vibrant faith that births revival—not manufactured in crowds, but ignited in hearts that have truly tasted His goodness and seen His glory. When even one soul is set ablaze by the presence of the Living God, the spark can become a wildfire. May that flame rise in you today. May revival be fresh and new within you, rooted in a firsthand taste of the One who is altogether good.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When I teach about “understanding the will of God,” I’d like to talk about a story that is told in all the synoptic gospels, except that Luke’s account gives a significant nuance. (Many skeptical Bible “critics” point out differences in the gospels to argue that they can’t be reliable — yet it’s actually the differences that support the validity of these accounts because they reveal that the events recorded were simply experienced and told from slightly different viewpoints, a very common circumstance when people are telling a story.)
Charles Swindoll wrote about these men who bring in animals from Africa for American zoos. They say that one of the hardest animals to catch there is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it’s simple. They’ve been catching this agile little animal with ease for years.
When Jim Burke became the head of a new products division at Johnson & Johnson, one of his first projects was the development of a children’s chest rub. The product failed miserably, and Burke expected that he would be fired. When he was called in to see the chairman of the board, however, he met a surprising reception. “Are you the one who just cost us all that money?” asked Robert Wood Johnson. “Well I just want to congratulate you. If you are making mistakes, that means you are taking risks, and we won’t grow unless you take risks!” Apparently, Mr. Johnson wasn’t joking! Years later, Johnson & Johnson remains one of the largest multi-national manufacturers of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical, personal hygiene, baby and biotechnology products.
The baby that came into the world through the scenario above was named Ishmael. According to Islamic belief, it was Ishmael that was offered as a sacrifice by Abraham, and through him that they became the rightful inheritors of the promises of God. In other words, Ishmael was the seed through which Islam was born. Hmmm.
In her book, Let Me Be a Woman, Elizabeth Elliot records the story of a friend who had great difficulty accepting the looks God had given her. While everyone this girl knew had grown beautiful golden hair, hers was black. And while they were all still growing, she had stopped. She grew to be only about four feet ten inches tall.
“A young man enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men, who passed the time playing cards and gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him. So it went on the next night and the next, and finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked what he should do. ‘Well,’ said the chaplain, ‘you are not at home now, and the other men have just as much right to the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don’t provoke them.’
A United States Army officer who trained pupils at Fort Sill for over 20 years once described the different qualities of the students during the two decades of his tenure. During the 1950’s, he observed the students’ attitude as being so lax that the instructors had trouble keeping their students awake during their lectures. This drastically changed in the mid 1960’s. The students began taking meticulous notes and absorbing every word of instruction. So, what changed?