Where's the rain?

It is dry. I have not cut my grass in four weeks. If it rained for the next 7 days straight I think it would be too little too late for many lawns. The fact is I know longer have any grass, I only have hay. I walk onto my lawn and I hear crunching sounds. I water my plants twice a day (tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers) just to keep them barely alive. I am pretty sure I even saw a cactus growing in my front yard when I pulled into the garage yesterday. The city has issued a water preservation warning to stop watering our lawns to conserve water for our Fire Fighters in the midst of the driest July on record in Indianapolis.

It is easy to easy the benefit and necessity of rain. Without rain grass dries up, vegetable plants stop producing their crop, and eventually everything will shrivel up and die. It is amazing how when rain comes it can revive even the saddest looking of plants. However, there is a point when a plant is so far gone that no amount of rain can revive it.

We are a spiritually dry people. Too often we go too long without the refreshing living water who is Jesus (John 4:10). How many times do we go days without quiet prayer, or careful scripture readings, or worship? How many times do we complain about our dismal spiritual life when we have failed to absorb the spirit into our roots? Our spirits have become a dry and weary land. We have no life and we have no fruit because we have not allowed Christ to penetrate the dirt that surrounds us.

We need to pray for God to rain his spirit upon us. We need to open ourselves to the pouring of his grace; we need to immerse ourselves in life giving water so that we may be healthy to produce fruit. Our good works are a natural blooming of fruit in our lives by allowing ourselves to be water by God. Dry ground and empty wells have neither fruit, no life. If we go too long without God’s raining spirit we shrivel up, and eventually we will die, and it will be too late. The good news is God is ready to send the necessary rain. The prophet Isaiah and Hosea remind us of the Lords willingness to transform us into a fruitful life giving land:
till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest. - Isaiah 32:15

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. - Isaiah 44:3

Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” - Hosea 6:3

May you receive the Holy Spirit being rained upon you, may you be nourished and bloom, may you bear fruit through the watering of God’s love.