From Drought to Drenched | August 1st, 2021
It has always been important to me to create a welcoming look with plenty of color outside my front door. I’ve planted a variety of beautiful flowers but to keep them looking good it requires regular watering, especially with our high heat. If I don’t water, the ground can get very parched and that’s the end of the pretty flowers.
Many western states are at this parched point right now in a “mega-drought.” It would take months of heavy rainfall for the soil to return to normal moisture levels. California has been declared to be in a “drought emergency” for two thirds of the counties. With 24.6 million acres of farmland, the state produces more of our veggies and fruits than any other by quite a wide margin.
Now, farmers are having to make tough decisions to destroy thousands of acres of lower value, high-water crops like almond and asparagus fields for more of the valuable produce because water is so uncertain. As a result, we are now watching the risk of food inflation and lowered food production becoming a reality in our grocery stores across the country.
Not only are we watching our country go through a physical mega-drought, but we are also currently experiencing a spiritual mega-drought. Could they possibly be connected?
Day by day, we are becoming increasingly parched as we steadily remove God from every nook and cranny in our society. Moral corruption is off the charts! We give our praise and worship to everything but God. How can we expect Him to bless us with rain and flourish our crops when we’ve told Him, “God’s will is no concern of this Congress” or that we no longer want prayer in our schools? We’ve turned our back on everything He calls good, desiring to promote and even celebrate what is evil in His sight.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20
Each one of us will go through a spiritual mega-drought if we do not include God in our life and strive to live in a way that pleases Him. Can you really expect to be filled with His joy and blessing when you never spend any time in His presence or refuse to honor Him with what He has given you?
Just as rain brings needed nutrients to the soil, God’s blessings provide us with what we need to be able to thrive as we are drenched with His goodness in the form of grace, protection, love, forgiveness, peace, and so much more.
In biblical times, rain symbolized God’s blessings and the withholding of rain to bring people and nations to repentance:
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. Deuteronomy 11:13-17
These words still hold true for us today. If we want God’s abundant blessing, we must obey His commands, not turn away from them. How can we learn His commands to enjoy His greatest blessings? By reading His Word which is the life-giving water that protects us from going through a spiritual drought.
The more I am in God’s Word learning about His character, the more I have seen a strong connection between trust and fear. He has taught me how incredibly loving and powerful He is which gives me the faith to know I can fully trust Him to take care of me, not only because He wants to but also because He can. Fear is washed away when I begin to understand the depths of His love and power.
Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. Deuteronomy 32:2
If you have turned your back on God, you will remain parched in a spiritual mega-drought unless you repent. In the Greek, the word for repent is metanoia which means “a change of mind.” Instead of heading toward your own selfish, sinful desires, you decide to turn the opposite direction toward God, righteous living, and what He desires. That is true repentance.
Perhaps there is a connection between physical drought and spiritual drought. As a country and as individuals, may we desire with everything in us to seek God with all of our heart, come to true repentance, and live in obedience to all He commands so we can live life drenched in a downpour of blessings that can only flow from a loving and powerful God.
Kimberly Moore is a blogger, speaker, and author of Beauty in a Life Repurposed and Kingdom Sparkle. To learn more, visit her website at kingdomsparkle.com.
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