Sometimes We Just Need Rain

I have really been feeling dry lately - like I do not have a lot to give. It really grieves me when I feel this way. One of my love languages is quality time. I love to spend time, share words, encourage others. In this, I feel most used by God and most complete in Him. But lately, I have been having a hard time hearing what He wants me to do. I am paralyzed. My confidence has been low and I have not been able to focus on His Word in the way that I am accustom. It is like I have spiritual ADD. Today, several things have occurred to call my attention to a deep need for spiritual cleansing that I have been ignoring.

In my quiet time this morning I fell over that emotional wall, that always leads me back to His presence. The tears came. I was broken once again by realization of my own foolish and sinful ways. But after the cleansing, I felt myself sitting in my Father's lap and hearing His voice - that ever comforting voice that I have been missing so much recently.

Then, stepping back into this world, I walked out to the mailbox and as I walked I felt the crisp grass crunch beneath my feet. "Man, it is dry!" I said to myself - and then the whisper ~ Sometimes you just need rain.

Oh how true it is! Nothing refreshes like the rain. I can water my garden regularly, but nothing revives the earth like water from the heavens. This is true in our spiritual life as well. Sometimes we try so hard pushing forward, reading, studying, doing good - but there is no life in it. We become deflated, limp and dragging. The beauty is lost. We need the rain of Living Water pouring down on us to truly lift and invigorate us.

Can you experience rain without a storm? I think you can.
Storms are powerful, drenching and frightening, and storms refresh the earth - refresh our need and our desire for Christ like nothing else.

Even so, a little rain shower can replenish and energize us to move forward also - when we are just a bit tired or distracted. God does speak in the storm, but He also speaks in a little 'cloud sprinkle' like my own. In theses small times of testing He rejuvenates us just enough to raise our heads and fill our veins. Then when His sweet Word comes to us, alive again, it brings us back to full life - life in Him - enough to share!

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7:37,38