Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in
your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Pt.2:2-3).
Many of us have been approached at a supermarket entrance
by someone performing a taste test. They want us to test two or more products and then
respond by telling them which product was the one that we liked the best. Its sometimes
hard to distinguish one product from another if the products are extremely similar. But
there are other times when we might be offered something that we like against something we
do not really care for. Our response in the latter instance is usually much quicker and
easier to make.
In Psalm 34:8, David encourages us, "O taste and see that the LORD [is] good: blessed
[is] the man [that] trusteth in him." If we held a taste test between item
"a" (The Lord), and item "b" (the world), which do you think would
win? What we would discover might not surprise us, in fact, it would most likely sadden
us. But consider the tasters in the test. They are people who have been enjoying item
"b" (the world) for all their lives. Many have not tasted item "a" at
all, and many who have, have done so incorrectly. In other words, you cannot get an
accurate account of a new taste, while the old one lingers in your mouth. That is why it
is necessary to repent, turn away from, those things you have been tasting all your life
as we come to God. We cannot get a true representation of God's person while we cling to
those things of the earth that tickle our taste buds.
Let me briefly illustrate. A good judge of a pie baking contest or chili cook-off will not
go from one item directly to the next. He will taste one item and then use some means to
clear his palate, some means that will clear his mouth of the taste of one item before
proceeding to the next. This gives him a better representation of the taste of each with
out confusing the lot. Let us then consider once more that we cannot truly taste of the
fullness of God's goodness, while the taste of those things we have embraced that are not
of Him still lingers.
To conclude, let us consider something else. The more we taste of God, the more our tastes
will be transformed. The things that once tickled our taste buds will seem bitter or
perhaps begin to make us gag or become sick to our stomachs. Many people can think of a
time where they had gotten sick enough to vomit, and can associate that time with a
particular food. They often lose the taste for that food and never want to taste it again.
In fact, the very idea of eating it often makes them nauseous. As we turn from the tastes
of the world, clearing our palates of that taste--so to speak, and we taste of the
goodness of God, we will begin to be repulsed by the mere thought of speaking, thinking or
doing things we once embraced. Living as a Christian becomes much easier when we savor the
things that are of God, and sin is so much easier to gain victory over when all it ever
does is leave a bad taste in our mouths.
Bread of deceit [is] sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with
gravel (Proverbs 20:17).
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