Lord Jesus, feed every hungry place in us with what is true. Let Your goodness be more than words on a page—let it become living nourishment to the weary soul. Forgive us for settling for less than Your heart intended. Teach us to recognize what is holy. Find what is healthy and life-giving. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
The Scripture says, “Taste and see that the LORD is good.”
There is something deeply personal in those words. The Lord does not merely say, hear and agree. He says, ” Taste and see. He invites us into an experience of His goodness so that truth becomes more than an idea. It becomes nourishment. It becomes something the soul can recognize, get, and live by. We can’t get the goodness of God from the outside. We must be invited to sit at the table of fellowship.
Unless goodness has been tasted, how can it truly be known?
A starving soul can hear of Love and still not understand it? At sixty-four, I am finally hearing and receiving what my soul was singing all along. The starving soul hears songs about tenderness. It encounters sermons about grace and stories about devotion. Yet, it remains incapable of imagining what such goodness feels like when it arrives in a human life. There is a difference between being told that bread exists and actually being fed. The soul knows the difference.
“Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, should keep their tongue from evil. They must also keep their lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”
Love is life.
Lovelessness is a death.
The end of the body’s years brings not only death. There is a quieter death that begins when the soul lacks what God created it to need. Just as the body requires food and water to stay strong, the soul also requires nourishment. It needs truth. It needs tenderness. It needs safety. It needs affection that does not confuse, consume, or degrade. It needs Love that agrees with the goodness of God.
When such nourishment is missing, something within a person can start to wither. A woman will continue outwardly—serving, working, smiling, helping others carry their burdens—while inwardly, parts of her grow faint from deprivation. Not because she is weak, but because she was never meant to live without Love.
And sadly, many women have never known true Love. I have tasted the goodness of God through someone who is very dear to me; my best friend, in fact. He brought me healing, tenderness, Love, but because I didn’t know how to handle such Love, I pushed him away. I’ve also tasted what was not the goodness of God.
A Woman without Love
They have been admired, desired, needed, pursued, or depended upon. They have been touched without being cherished, wanted without being known, or praised without being protected. But these are not the same as holy Love. These are not the same as being nourished by tenderness that is truthful, safe, and clean. The soul yearns for the unknown. It often lacks language for the hunger it carries.
This is why the goodness of God matters so deeply.
When a woman begins to taste His goodness—not merely as doctrine, but as living reality—something within her starts to awaken. She begins to discern the difference between what flatters and what feeds. Between what stimulates and what restores. Between what takes from the soul and what gives it breath again. Why would we accept anything less?
The goodness of God teaches the heart what healthy Love feels like.
It is steady, gentle.
It does not humiliate.
It does not force.
It does not rush.
It does not awaken hunger only to leave the soul emptier than before.
It nourishes.
And from there, the heart begins to understand something sacred: affection is not shallow when it is true. Tenderness is not weakness when it is clean. To be loved well is not indulgence; it is part of the nourishment of the soul. Human Love does not replace God. Yet, in its rightful place, it can become a way His goodness is carried into the physical world. This happens through kind eyes, safe presence, gentle words, faithful affection, and Love that builds up rather than tears down.
This is why lovelessness wounds so deeply. The soul was made to flourish in goodness. It was made to be warmed by what is holy. It was refreshed by what is truthful. It was strengthened by Love that does not violate peace. Where there is no tenderness or safety, parts of the soul can start to feel exiled. They feel as if separated from life itself.
But where the goodness of God is tasted, healing begins.
The starving places start to wake. The faint places start to breathe.
What was numb begins to feel again. What was cold begins to soften.
What was resigned begins to hope.
This is part of what it means to taste and see that the Lord is good. It involves not merely confessing His goodness with the mouth. One must also be nourished by it. Only then will the soul learn the difference between what is living and what is not.
And once the soul has tasted what is good, it can’t stay content with what does not nourish. It begins to hunger for what is true, clean, and full of life. It begins to recognize Love not by its intensity, but by its fruit. Peace. Safety. Reverence. Rest.
For the soul, too, must be fed.
Sacred Pause
Sit quietly here for a moment.
Have there been places in your life where your soul was hungry? Did you not yet know what it needed?
Have there been times when you accepted substitutes? You hadn’t yet tasted the goodness of God in a way that taught your heart the difference.
Bring those places before the Lord without shame. Let Him meet the hunger with truth. Let Him name what was missing without condemning you for needing it. The God who made the soul knows how to feed it. He is not offended by your hunger. He is the One who answers it.
A quiet prayer of repentance and renewal
Lord Jesus,
Forgive me for the ways I have tried to live on what will never truly nourish me. Forgive me for calling scraps a feast because I did not yet understand Your goodness. Forgive me for receiving what stirred my hunger but did not heal it. Pardon me for confusing attention, desire, or pursuit with holy Love.
Feed every starving place within me.
Guide my soul to understand what consumes and what nourishes. Help me recognize what uses and what cherishes. Teach me to see the difference between what excites for a moment and what restores in truth.
Let me taste and see that You are good in the deepest places of my life. For every woman who has gone without tenderness, let Your goodness start the healing. For those without safe affection, let Your goodness start the healing. For every person who has not been truly loved, let Your goodness start the healing. Revive what lovelessness has worn thin. Restore what neglect has left faint. Nourish the soul with what is holy, life-giving, and true.
In Jesus’ Name, amen.
The soul that has tasted the goodness of God can no longer live on what does not nourish.