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A Family Feast:
Tasting and Seeing the Lord's Goodness
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Psalm 34:8
Women’s ministry is an invitation to a family feast where we gather to “taste and see that the Lord is good!" The discipleship banquet table is adorned with the centerpiece of God’s Word where we invite hungry and thirsty women to be nourished. Women may arrive dehydrated and starving. These deprivations sound like, “I am anxious about tomorrow." "I feel hopeless and wonder if I can keep going." "I feel all alone." "Does anyone see or understand?” Sometimes we look to have our thirst quenched or our hunger satisfied in the wrong places.
Understanding God's goodness begins with tasting, experiencing, and engaging before we can see. Doubt can be transformed into belief. The power of the gospel transforms us from women like Eve who questioned, “Did God actually say?” (Gen. 3:1) to anchoring ourselves in “and God said…” (Gen. 1:3). Tasting and Seeing leads to believing. Sometimes we scoot up to the table, timid to try any of the offerings, such as joining a small group or stepping outside our comfort zone. Women's ministry sets the table. Try it; you might like it! Who can attend? Only women who, we perceive, “know it all” already? No, it is free and for everyone. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!" (Isa. 55:1).
Oh, what joy to introduce women to Jesus, who offers Living Water (John 4:10) and the Bread of Life (John 6:35). His Word works on our hearts because it’s effectual (2 Tim. 3:16-17) as well as living and active (Heb.4:12). Fast-food ministry offerings will not satisfy and nourish. Women's ministry should whet women's appetites for real and substantive truth—a well-balanced diet of Old Testament and New Testament nourishment. As we taste, our spiritual senses awaken, and the Spirit enables us to see the expanse of God’s goodness, not only in our lives but also in the collective witness of His faithfulness to others around His table. Word-based and relationally driven women's ministry gives us a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7).
Pull Up a Chair!
Karen Hodge
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