Taste And See

I'm gonna wait on You

I'm gonna wait on You

I've tasted Your goodness

I'll trust in Your promise

I'm gonna wait on You

My personal time of prayer has been so rich this last week as I’ve been worshiping along to Garden Music’s incredible new album, For the City. What a gift to be led by such an amazing worship team! I was personally quite thrilled when I found out that I would be writing my devotional on one of my all-time favorite worship songs, “Wait On You.” This song is an anthem that repeats over and over the instructions given in Isaiah 40:31, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Now I’ll be honest, I actually wrote a devotional on this song last July -  I guess it was a prophetic moment or something :) So as I listened to this song this week, I was expectant on how God might help me see this song and write on it in a new way. See, last year, I focused on the waiting part, but this week God emphasized a different set of lyrics to me.

In the midst of the lyrics about waiting, there are two key lines: “I’ve tasted Your goodness / I’ll trust in Your promise.”

This is the “why.” Why would you wait on a seemingly invisible God? Why wouldn’t you pick the quick-fix idols of the world? Why would you choose the counter-cultural way of Christ?

Because you’ve tasted His goodness. Because you’ve encountered a God so good, so consistent, so loving, so real, so tangible, so personal - that how could you NOT trust in His promises?

Friend, without the why, we’ll never be able to wait. In a sermon a few weeks ago, Pastor Jared shared the illustration of the picture on a puzzle box. If you don’t know what the puzzle is going to look like, it’s hard to be disciplined enough to finish it. If you don’t know where you’re going, it will be hard to stay on the straight and narrow path. If you don’t know WHY it will be really hard to wait!

If God is inviting you to wait in an area of life today and you’re struggling to sing along to this song with confidence, maybe you’re skipping a step.

Before we can confidently wait, we must encounter God, we must experience His goodness.

THEN we can wait with confidence because we know what’s on the puzzle box, we know who we’re waiting for.

Maybe the waiting feels extra hard because you’re lacking that personal relationship with God. Maybe the waiting is tough because it’s been a while since you’ve truly sat with the Lord and been reminded of His goodness.

Psalm 34:8 invites us to, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” It’s hard to wait on something if you aren’t sure that it is good. Maybe before the waiting, God is calling you to taste and see His goodness, to take refuge in Him, to become confident in His promises - and then you can enter the waiting season with new commitment and clarity.

Let’s taste His goodness today. He’s inviting you to encounter him. He wants time with you to show you He’s worth waiting for. Carve out some space. Maybe it’s right now, as you finish this devotional. Maybe it’s tonight after the kids go to bed. Spend some time, even just ten minutes, reflecting on who God is, how He has shown up for you in the past, and taste the goodness of His promises and truth.

I wonder how much easier the waiting will be when we know the one we’re waiting for.

Cristina Schmitter

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