Thanksgiving Devotion

Thanksgiving will be here in just a few weeks. My co-writer and I have written devotional books for pretty much every occurrence throughout the year since we have a "Glimpses of God" series that covers winter, spring, summer, and fall. In addition we have a holiday devotional titled,  Glimpses of the Savior that is currently on a blog tour and on sale for .99 (Kindle version). I thought I'd share a Thanksgiving devotion from that book:

You walk into a kitchen where Thanksgiving dinner is being prepared. Or perhaps you are the one preparing the meal and you walk back in after having stepped out for a minute. You are suddenly engulfed by the delicious aroma that fills the room. A turkey seasoned with sage and rosemary is baking in the oven. Bread bakes on the shelf of another part of the oven along with broccoli casserole with cheese melting in it, and hot pecan pie. Potatoes ready to mash and simmering gravy rest on top of the stove. On the countertop are a cranberry salad and a cold pumpkin pie with whipped cream next to it, waiting to be smoothed on top. You peer at the food through the oven window; the turkey is sizzling, the broccoli casserole is bubbling and the bread and pecan pie are browned to perfection.

Your mouth waters at the delightful smells, but still you are left only imagining how delicious these foods really are. As wonderful as these foods look, and as enticing as these smells are, you need to taste the food to truly appreciate it. These other sensations pale in comparison to what you experience when you sit down at the table for dinner and actually taste the food. Only then, when you put a piece of warm bread or a fork full of cheesy broccoli in your mouth, do you really know how good it is.

King David knew this. Well, he may not have known about our American Thanksgiving turkey dinners, and the foods that made his mouth water may have been things we have never eaten, but he knew that tasting was the best way to see how good something really was. So he tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good. We are not just to read of God’s goodness in a book, or hear about it from a friend or from our pastor in a sermon on a Sunday morning. No, David tells us to taste it, to experience it!

But it begs the question; how do we experience God and taste His goodness? A closer look at the rest of this Psalms 34 is helpful in explaining how we do this. The passage tells us to take refuge in the Lord (vs. 8), to fear the Lord (vs. 9), and to seek Him (vs. 10). It instructs us to listen and carefully note what the Psalmist and other writers of God’s word have to say (vs. 11). The passage also tells us to keep from speaking things that are evil or deceitful (vs. 13), to turn from evil, do good, and pursue peace (vs. 14). 

Look at the verbs the Psalmist uses in these verses. He says to take refuge, seek, listen, turn away from, pursue. Do you notice anything special about these verbs? They are action verbs. This then is how we taste God’s goodness. It is a call to action, not a passive observation. We are to actively engage in a walk with our Lord.

Prayer: Father, You are good. Teach me to actively pursue You. Help me to learn how to taste Your goodness. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Thought for the Day: Tasting that the Lord is good does not happen through passive observation, it requires action.