Taste and See
It’s wild to me how you can read one Book over and over again your whole life and learn something new each time. That’s how it is with the Bible. I’ll never forget when I was a teenager, years before I even fell in love with the Word for myself, a dear mentor of mine explaining it like a treasure chest that keeps spewing out new treasures every time you open its pages. We have an infinite God who never ends. It only makes sense that there will always be more to learn about him. He only becomes more real and more beautiful to us with each new revelation of his Word coming alive in our hearts. It’s only by His Spirit that these “new treasures” can be revealed to us as well - which is why we can see something new each time we read the same passage we’ve read a thousand times over. God reveals his perfect treasure to us at just the right time. Any sooner and we would not have ears to hear, eyes to see, or a heart to comprehend.
“ -these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depth of God. For who knows a persons thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:10-13
I feel I recently unearthed hidden treasures kept tucked away just beneath my reach until the right time. I truthfully had been in a spiritual rut for some time, and the Father has opened my eyes afresh to the Truth of his unending love and faithfulness. I am quite content at this point in my journey of faith to admit I feel like I knew nothing before this moment here. If my learning more about God means realizing I was looking at something wrong before, count me a fool, that I may become wise (as the apostle Paul might say)! Our journey with him looks like lower still. More surrender. More being made a fool, so that I may find no righteousness of my own left in me. I think I’m realizing now I had to go through many of the hardships that I have in the last few years to learn just these things.
He is stripping me of self-righteousness.
He is stripping me of any sense of pride in anything I might “accomplish” for Him.
I see now how much I cared about how people saw me. I wanted to be seen as “good.” A good follower of Jesus. A woman of the Word. A faithful missionary. A lovely wife. Adventurous. Brave. Overcoming. Charming.
Yet even Jesus, our Lord, calls none but the Father good. He never claimed any righteousness in and of himself, and he was fully God. In his human form, he recognized his desperate need for the Father, and clung only to His goodness in full dependency.
If my dreams of being a missionary overseas didn’t crumble before my own eyes, I might have accomplished a lot for God, yet in my own strength, and for the recognition of man. Thank the LORD he didn’t allow me to stay overseas in that condition. It took taking care of an elderly grandma behind closed doors to teach me how to serve without recognition. I praise him for allowing my life to not look very “glamorous” to those who might look in. He is stripping me still.
The Truth is, I can’t even seek God without God. There is nothing good in me. In John 15:5, Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
Nothing. Wow. What beauty we may find in being stripped of anything we may claim for ourselves. What joy we can find in our refining. If we are known by our fruit, and only a good tree can produce good fruit, the pressure is still off of us, because we are not the one who supplies ourselves (the branches) with what we need to produce fruit. It all comes from the root (the vine)! If we’re an apple tree, we can’t force apples to spring forth - we can only abide - allowing ourselves to be pruned - allowing the vinedresser to care for us and bring the increase. What rest we find in this.
Side note:
I’ve also realized recently how deeply I clung to what the fruit looked like. I wanted the fruit of my choosing. Again, to satisfy some place of self-righteousness in me, so others might see and give me praise. How wrong this thinking is, as only God should get the glory! The fruit of our lives will never even be about what others see. It will never be about how big we grow our ministries, how many miracles we saw, or how many countries we visited in missions. The fruit he cares about is his character. His DNA being replicated in us.
Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-Control.
Our Beloved Messiah IS all of those things. We again cannot produce them in and of ourselves. It’s him living in us, changing our nature and producing them through us. He IS love. How can I love perfectly other than to remain in Him? Am I doing good works while my heart is far from him, just as Martha who toiled while Mary chose the better portion and sat at His feet? Am I going through the motions, going to church, even doing ministry, while I have no patience and gentleness toward my own family?
We must rid ourselves of anything that hinders us from his Truth being fully manifested in our lives. As he reveals and opens our hearts up to his Truth in his perfect timing, we can freely admit where we were wrong and embrace his new Life working in us. Even if it means that we cling to a Truth that is not popular (for his Word promises we will be hated for it). When we get no recognition from man and our life does not look glorious, may we be found faithful in His sight.
May we “taste and see that he is good,” and be overcome by his goodness, transforming us as we discover the treasure that is Him.