We Need a Rain.
We need a rain. We need a soaker. The fields are dry. The leaves on the corn stalks are curling up. The crops are stressed. The leaves of the trees are falling early. The grass under our feet is crunchy. Gardens are being kept alive by sprinklers. The ponds are getting shallow and stagnant. Even the fish need a drink. We need a rain.
The present news cycle is filled with talk of gas prices, inflation, January 6 hearings, war in Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Covid variants and the President’s mental state. There is much to be concerned about. I will add one more thing to the list. Much of the Midwest and Southwest is growing desperate for rainfall. It could reach a point when we find water of greater value than oil.
Blame it on climate change if you wish. History would prove that there have been droughts on the earth since Genesis 3. There have also been storms and floods. In spite of changing weather patterns we have known “summer, winter, springtime and harvest.” I wasn’t alive during the “dust bowl years.” I do remember the long, hot summer of 1980. There was record breaking heat that continued for weeks. In more recent times, 2012 was an exceptionally dry summer. We need rain.
God can use many things to get our attention. That is a Biblical principle. He controls the weather. In the days of Elijah, God was so disgusted with the idolatrous nation of Israel that He sent a drought. There was no rain for 3 1/2 years according to the word spoken by the prophet Elijah. Everything dried up and famine shook the land. But God had their attention. That drought ended after a showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel.
Jeremiah proclaimed (Jeremiah 3:3) that God withheld the showers because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people. My point is that we have more to be concerned with than climate change. Is God trying to gain our attention? You know He is.
Simeon Webster was an old country preacher that God used in my life many years ago. He is long gone from this world. He told of dust bowl days in Kentucky. It didn’t rain for a long time. Pasture was scarce and ponds went dry. Trees were cut down so that cows could eat the leaves. They were desperate. When they gathered at church for their “summer revival,” the building was packed. People were desperate for rain and they turned to God. He had their attention.
One year later, the situation changed. The rains came. The ponds filled and pasture was plentiful. When they gathered for their “summer revival” everything was back to normal. The desperation had passed.
We need rain. We are beginning to pray for it because we are in a dry and thirsty land. More than H2O, we need an outpouring of God’s grace upon our people. In Psalm 72, David wrote these important words. These words contain the last recorded prayer of Israel’s greatest king. They are words of great promise.
“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth” (Psalm 72:6).
We need a rain.
