Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:8, NIV)

How delightful are these words spoken by David from Psalm 34:8 as he reflected on God’s goodness shown to him during times of crisis, affirming his reliance upon the Lord. Per the Berean Study Bible commentary on Psalm 34, “the metaphor of “taste” suggests an intimate and personal encounter, akin to sampling food. In biblical times, sharing a meal was a sign of fellowship and trust. This call to “taste” implies that God’s goodness is not just to be known intellectually but experienced personally. The goodness of the LORD is a recurring theme in Scripture, seen in passages like Exodus 34:6-7, where God reveals His compassionate and gracious nature. The invitation to “see” complements “taste,” suggesting a full sensory experience of God’s benevolence. This echoes the invitation in Psalm 119:103, where God’s words are described as sweeter than honey.”

This theme of “tasting” and experiencing God’s goodness through an intimate and personal encounter with Him dovetails well with the setting of our first Gathered In His Name Intercession & Outreach. Following our ministry mission “to faithfully obey God’s call to prayer, fervently interceding for others to bring about a move of God in our lives, homes, communities, nation, and the world,” we set out on October 4, 2025 to pray for those in Bethesda, Maryland. Within the two-hour window we had allotted, we prayed for the Holy Spirit to lead us to who He would have us to engage with. Our key verse for that day was from Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (NIV) It was and is our desire for those we minister to that God would give them His joy and peace.

Unbeknownst to us, the city was hosting its “Taste of Bethesda” featuring some of Bethesda’s restaurants with live entertainment and activities. God blessed us with beautiful weather and ripe opportunities through this festival to engage with those who wanted prayer and to experience God’s goodness. God also blessed us with victory before we set out that morning.

We each fasted prior to this first outreach. Consequently, we each experienced spiritual attacks by the enemy—whether attacks on our thoughts or attacks on our physical health. The attacks were not a coincidence, nor were they random. The attacks were targeted respective to our areas of weakness. Through prayer and God’s authority given us by the power of the Holy Spirit, we OVERCAME our adversary as we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37, NIV)! Through Christ, we not only overcame the enemy’s opposition, but we were STRENGTHENED in our overcoming!

Our prayer encounters began with a woman we helped in the parking garage with her parking kiosk payment. Upon relief, she exclaimed, “This is an answer to prayer!” In addition, we prayed with restaurant vendors who asked us to pray for peace, for health, and for a safe and successful event. One man even led us in prayer!  We prayed for others we encountered along with the safe return home of a precious lost cat whose owners’ desperate plea via a posted “lost” sign tugged at our hearts. We know there is nothing too big or too small for God, especially not the safe return of our family pet. He cares about it all!

During our outreach, my brother Bryan (who lives in Kansas) and his staff experienced a system-wide outage that affected their email system, payroll system among other important business functions. We had prayed for his emails to be restored days before that morning’s prayer outreach. Without the emails restored, it would have been very difficult to reconstruct certain processes he’s had in place for years to be operational. He called during our prayer outreach to enthusiastically inform me that his emails—since 2014—had been restored! Praise God and he praised God too!

We pray that those who we prayed for tasted God’s goodness, will know that God sees and cares for them and their needs. We pray that they will desire a closer walk with Jesus and see just how good He is!!

We also experienced God’s goodness, recounting how we saw Him show up during our time together.

Undoubtedly, the enemy was not pleased with our plans to engage our Bethesda community in prayer and with the hope of Christ and His good news! Satan was determined to discourage and deter our efforts through his targeted attacks made on each of us. However, as is true to the promise of Romans 8:37, we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS. Satan is likely confused as to why we didn’t fold like a cheap lawn chair! God allowed the attacks to show that His design, His word for His People will prevail! We are God’s design and His designs will stand the test of time, generation after generation!

We are humbled and grateful to be entrusted to respond to this precious invitation of the Lord to pray for people, to show His love to them. We know that prayer works and it is needed now more than ever.

Taste and see that the Lord is good!

-Nicole