LET IT RAIN!

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It's raining! After several weeks without rain, we have finally seen the heavens open up! Thanks to the leftovers of Tropical Storm Fay we may all get some needed rain. I have about 70 feet of cable running through my yard that I have to bury and the ground is too hard to dig. I figured the only way to make it rain was to wash my car (LOL!) but thankfully the Lord sent the rain!

The grass at my house is brown and dry! To be honest that's the way I've been feeling now for a few months - brown and dry. Do you ever get that way? On top of me feeling burned out, I feel brown and dry spiritually. In my examination over what's going on, I've figured out the problem. It's me. Somewhere in the chaos and confusion over moving all summer, I've allowed my personal time with the Lord shrink and shrink and shrink. The reason I'm not feeling connected is because I'm not. I've gotten caught up in the motions of what I enjoy doing here at the church in my roles, but my personal role in my relationship with Christ has been suffering terribly.

Stay with me here....In Ukraine there was a government-made famine back in 1932. Millions of farmers and their families died of starvation during this terrible tragedy. Please understand, the famine didn't happen because there was no rain or because the crops weren't growing. No! The harvest was always plentiful, but the worms in Stalin's government would take the harvest and ship it to different parts of the Soviet Empire. Thus the very people that raised the food died by the thousands. No, this famine wasn't brought on by drought it was brought on by man.

Just a few years ago, I remember the horrible images showing on the TV screens of small children in Africa starving to death because there was a terrible drought in the land. The rain refused to fall for years and the land had dried up and become incapable of producing a harvest to feed the people. There simply was no food to distribute.

Our spiritual life can often go through these types of cycles. Sometimes the famine we feel like we are experiencing is because we create the conditions that lead to that famine (like in Ukraine). We don't get in the Word, we don't pray daily or pray enough daily, we aren't praising God for what He has done and on and on. When we start neglecting these key elements in our relationship with Him, we should only expect one outcome...famine...and we have ourselves to blame.

Our relationship with Christ must be personal. How long would your marriage last if you sat on the couch all day and night and did what you wanted to do but ignored your spouse completely? Most likely, the relationship would be seriously strained. As a husband or wife you must invest time and activities and communication into the marriage or it will be doomed for failure. We should take our walk with Christ to the same level, but often let everything take priority over doing the things we should be doing to deepen our relationship with Him.

Sometimes, even when we are doing the things we are SUPPOSED to be doing, the Lord allows us to experience a time to where it seems like He's not moving, like there's no rain. I assure you though that He is still there, working and moving in unseen ways. Perhaps He's trying to make you even more HUNGRY for Him...that's what drought does right...makes us more hungry. When we are desperate people we cry out for relief, we cry out for the rain.

I have to say I'm thankful for the rain today in so many ways. I'm thankful the dust is washed off of my car, that my yard may turn green again, and I'm thankful that the Lord has used the rain to remind me of my shortcomings with Him over the last few weeks. It's time for this Ron-made drought to be over!