Posts Tagged: mustard seed faith

“Nibbling God”

On August 13, 2022 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Psa. 34:8         “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

                        Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (English Standard Version)

This was the verse of the day in the You Version app recently. In the story that was connected with the verse, the guy who was doing the story made the simple point that “taste and see” and “takes refuge” are verbs. They are things we can actually do. Indeed, we must do them if we are to experience God.

Sometimes, I put way too much emphasis on feelings and thoughts. Unfortunately, thoughts and feelings are almost always nouns. At least, that is true for me.

The Hebrew verbs for “taste” and “see” are imperatives. They are commands. Of course, as with any command, we are free to disobey. When I was a little guy, I was very finicky. My mom used to say to me, “Well, taste it and see if you like it.” Sometimes, I obeyed. Sometimes, I did not. But the only way to know if I liked something or not was to taste. No amount of external pressure or cajoling was a substitute for experiencing something for myself.

So it is with God.

How do we “taste and see that the LORD is good”? We nibble. Nibbling is a greatly underrated action in the spiritual life. I think that those of us who claim to be Christ-followers are at least partly to blame. “Either you believe, or you don’t!” is the watchword of many believers. We ignore Jesus’ comment about a mustard-seed-sized faith. We also ignore the cry of a father whose son was possessed by a very cruel demon, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” He had just enough faith to cry out for faith to help his unbelief. That’s really not a lot of faith. Yet, in response to his cry of (un)belief, Jesus healed his son. A nibble of faith was apparently enough.

Perhaps God is more eager to be tasted and known than we are to nibble.

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