Our hearts yearn for fulfillment.  Sin is deceptive and will tell us that we cannot be happy unless we have what the world offers.  How can we, sinners in a world of sin, hope to overcome temptations that would draw us away from God?  What holds us to God, when the world is constantly seeking to pull us from Him?

1 Peter 2:1-5 – “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

God, in the passage above, has much to encourage us with.  This passage is a wheel that turns on the center statement – “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good”.  I found myself laboring to try to explain what this means.  I have a feeling for those who have tasted the Lord’s goodness, no explanation is needed, yet for those who have not, I can try to explain, but it is like trying to explain love or loss to someone who has never experienced it.  The Lord is good to us beyond anything we can fathom.  He is perfect love, perfect faithfulness, and He is for us; even to the point of suffering shame, beatings, death, and the wrath of God in our place.

What does your heart say about God over everything else in your life?  The goodness of God, being the place where your heart finds rest in this world broken by sin, allows for both repentance and a heart that pursues Christ in holiness from His Word.  The heart wants what it wants – unless you have tasted the goodness of God, then every bit of repentance the Bible calls you towards will be burdensome to you.  1 John 5:3 – “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”  

Repentance is more than just feeling bad about your wrongs, it literally means to change one’s mind.  The repentance that God calls us to is not burdensome because we see the goodness of God, we see the lies and deceitfulness of sin, and we joyfully reject sin and run after God, trusting that whatever happens in our life, wherever God leads us, we are in the hands of a God who loves us and is always for us.  We don’t want to sin against God, because we love Him – we’ve tasted the goodness of God, we do not want to bring dishonor to His name, and we trust that in Him and in following Him there is peace and a fullness of joy in fellowship with Him.

Psalm 84:11 – “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor.  No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Repentance is fueled by our coming to God daily to be reminded of His goodness and promises towards us.  Many people, myself included have often come to God’s Word looking for answers about what things we should do or not do.  God doesn’t work that way.  God doesn’t give us a list of things to do, He just calls us to love Him with all our heart.  That may seem simplistic in a world where decisions have to be made every day, but that is the peace of God – that we can seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness and trust that whatever that looks like will be the best possible path for us to take.  So we come to God, in His Word often to be refreshed by the Truth of God for us, worked out by the Spirit of God in us, so that we would find greater freedom and joy in Christ.

The outcome of this, is that just as Christ was rejected by men, we too will be rejected by many.  There will be trials that come from following God, but for those who have tasted the goodness of God, we can persevere through any trials knowing that Christ is with us and for us every step, every moment of our lives.  Philippians 4:12-13 – “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  

I’m going to try to land the plane here.  The goodness of God is tasted and savored by every Christian indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God through faith.  It is the goodness of God that fuels both true repentance from the deceitfulness of sin, and delight in the pursuit of God in holiness.  We come to God’s word not from obligation, but meekly, in need of regular refreshment in the goodness of God and His promises towards us in our Lord, Christ Jesus.  As those who have tasted the goodness of God, we are being built up into Him, after His likeness, so that as time goes by we will find less of our old selves, and more of Him for our joy.

As one who is with you in the fight for faith, my encouragement is to keep going to the One who has eternal life.  We cannot change our hearts, but God can, and promises to do so.  We have no hope in ourselves, but perfect hope in Christ, our savior.  Together we ask, for Him to reveal more of His goodness to us, and for our hearts to be knit together with His for our good and His glory.

Grace and Peace,

Adam