Taste and see! Try Him!

This weekend I was talking about this verse with someone and it is so fitting that the Lord would use it in this devotional. I was sharing that because I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, I can not rest when I am wigging out in sin and outright disobedience. I am absolutely miserable if I am not in fellowship with Jesus..because I have walked with Him and know what it is to be led by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit...I know when I am not walking with Him. A believer that has had continual fellowship with Christ through His word and time spent with Him in prayer should know when they are not in step. Hebrews says that "Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts against Him." (Hebrews 3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,)This verse is talking about how God brought the Israelites out with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, how He miraculously delivered them from slavery and the hand of Pharoah and they did what???...they rebelled against God. The Lord tells us not to harden our hearts against Him. The way we harden our hearts is through disobedience. He tells us something like a mother tells their child and we put our hands over our ears and say NO LORD, I can't hear You, I won't hear You. I am going to do things my way right now. That is in essence what we do. We want to feed our flesh so we harden our hearts and go our own way. After we do that enough we lose sensitivity to the Holy Spirit the eyes of our heart become calloused and hard. In Ephesians 1:18 Paul prays for the saints (we are all saints in Christ) 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,God wants us to have our hearts enlightened so that we know the hope to which he has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Obeying the Lord means that He will be on our side. When we disobey, we set ourselves against the Lord and forfeit His protection and blessing. I prayed this weekend about asking anything in His Name and He will do it...I prayed that He would help me to believe Him and obey Him since it is for my good. I prayed that I would believe and trust Him when He says that His commands are not burdensome and that He blesses obedience. He says without holiness no one will see Him. I want to be holy as He is so I can be in right relationship with Him. I am not speaking of perfection but blamelessness...not living in premeditated sin. I asked Him to remove me from any yokes of bondage or unbelief so I could run hard after Him and stay focused. The thing is that when I am in sin and my heart and mind are focused on earthly things I can't even be about His kingdom agenda because I am so steeped in my own junk. I miss out on the joy and sweet fellowship. I am afraid that many "so called" believers have not truly tasted of the sweetness of the Lord so they don't even know what they are missing and then settle for the lesser things that this world has to offer. Let me say from my own experience, what the world has to offer truly is fleeting and pales in comparison to the sweetness of the Lord. It is my prayer and let it be yours that we have tender, pliable hearts that are sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I am praying that He would give me an undivided heart for my own good and that we would drink deep and taste that the Lord is good. He is so good!In the words of my favorite Bible teacher Beth Moore " There is no high like the Most High." Okay here is the devotional.
love jenny

Monday, May 21, 2007
. . . IF INDEED YOU HAVE TASTED THAT THE LORD IS GOOD.1 Peter 2:3 If." Then this is not a matter to be taken for granted concerning every one of the human race. "If"--then there is a possibility and a probability that some may not have tasted that the Lord is gracious. "If"--then this is not a general but a special mercy; and it is necessary to ask whether we know the grace of God by inward experience. There is no spiritual favor that may not be a matter for heart-searching. But while this should be a matter of earnest and prayerful inquiry, no one ought to be content while there is any such thing as an "if" about his having tasted that the Lord is good. A jealous and holy distrust of self may give rise to the question even in the believer's heart, but the continuance of such a doubt would be an evil indeed. We must not rest without a desperate struggle to clasp the Savior in the arms of faith and say, "I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me."1 Do not rest, believer, until you have a full assurance of your interest in Jesus. Let nothing satisfy you until, by the infallible witness of the Holy Spirit bearing witness with your spirit, you are identified as a child of God. Do trifle with this. Do not be satisfied with "perhaps" or "if" or "maybe." Build on eternal truths; really build upon them. Let your anchor be cast into that which is within the veil, and see to it that your soul is linked to the anchor by a cable that will not break. Get beyond these dreary "ifs"; stay no longer in the wilderness of doubts and fears; cross the Jordan of distrust, and enter the promised land of peace, where the land ceases not to flow with milk and honey. 12 Timothy 1:12
Please note: Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright (c) 2003, Good News Publishers and used by Truth for Life with written permission. Scripture quotations are taken from Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright (c) 2001, Good News Publishers.