Did it work?
I don’t mind the rainy days, as long as I can open the back door and stand under the patio awning to breathe it all in. I know rain can ruin a lot of plans – games get delayed or washed out, hair styles are ruined. In my case, my satin easter outfit needed a blow dryer miracle before I stepped on the stage this year.
In our modern society, rain feels like an annoyance. A delay in our plans. But a farmer thinks about it a little differently. Rain is a welcome sight to the one who has seed in the ground.
This morning, I stood at the patio door watching rain fall, sipping my coffee, and talking to the Lord. Something about the rain reminds me that He is still doing something. I poured my heart out to Him today, then sat for a moment to hear what He might want to say.
Rain is a welcome sight to the one who has seed in the ground.
I get excited imagining that these raindrops are returning to the earth not to destroy things as in the days of Noah, but to replenish parched land. It creates this feeling of anticipation, but my history with unmet expectations causes me to doubt whether or not this hope will actually be fulfilled. It seems like there’s more evidence of God not giving me what I ask for than there is of Him granting those requests.
And then, clear as day, I hear His response: this is me. I’m doing this. And I’m at peace again. The wrestling gives way to calm submission. Because this isn’t my idea. It’s a God idea.
10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
Isaiah 55:10-11 NLT
The wrestling gives way to calm submission.
I love this passage. All of Isaiah 55 reminds us of the way God works, even though we usually miss it. But these two verses make it so practical. His work is all around us. He handles every single detail of every single concern that we encounter.
But notice that the water He sends forth has a purpose. An assignment. It comes to cause growth. The seed buried deep underground grows strong enough to fight through the soil and the sometimes rock-hard surface. That fight doesn’t come without its difficulty. The force required for this little tiny plant to emerge above ground, then grow to become strong enough to tower above the ground… that force is forged in the dark, under the weight of a ground saturated and softened by the rain.
But it’s not only the farmer who prospers from this harvest. Scripture says this grain feeds many who hunger. And so it is with the word of God. When He sends it forth, it produces fruit. Fruit can feed many.
His very personal work in you will always yield a harvest far beyond your own life.
Who is waiting for your harvest to come? Who will be fed by the watering of your soil and the fight that little seed undergoes?
God never does something for just one person. And yet, He loves each of us uniquely enough that it often feels like His work is just for us. But even when Jesus leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one, He still brings that one back into the flock. It’s never just us and Jesus; there’s always a flock.
His very personal work in you will always yield a harvest far beyond your own life.
So did it work? Did these showers yield the promised fruit of May? I’m in faith as I watch the rainfall today. Even if I’m a little skeptical. The timeline from April to May might not happen. Rain fell for 40 days in Noah’s time, but it took much longer than that for the water to subside and the ground to reveal itself.
Lord, send the rain.
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