God has always been after personal relationship with man—that’s why we were created. When God began dealing with man, it wasn’t enough for Him to just become “Abraham’s God.” God desired that each generation would know Him for themselves. He had to become “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” And how did He do that? By making Himself available for each man to experience—by showing each generation His goodness. 

It’s not enough for us to know Him in a detached way either. We can’t just know about God—we need to experience Him for ourselves. He must become our God.

The Bible tells us to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Taste is an experience born of expectation. When you sit down to a meal, you develop an expectation of what the food will taste like—before you ever eat it. You smell its aroma, it looks appealing decorating your plate, you even remember its taste from the last time you ate that meal, and your mouth begins to water in expectation. The problem is, someone else may have cooked that meal you’re salivating over, and your expectation may be wrong! 

Experiencing God’s goodness is much the same. The “expectation” you create of what God will do in your life is often based on what others have told you about Him or how others have treated you in His name. But that expectation may be wrong! 

1 Peter says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3). It is our experience of God that becomes the catalyst for our spiritual growth. Without experiencing His goodness, we can’t make Him our personal God. And with a wrong expectation, we won’t want to experience Him. Are your unconscious expectations of God hindering you from experiencing His goodness?