Let it Rain!!

Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain.

The Lord will make flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.
Zechariah 10:1

I am not sure why but I feel the Lord has asked me to pray for rain. And although I may never totally understand why He wants me to pray for rain, I know I will be blessed by the obedience of doing so. So I am praying. I also have been studying rain as it appears throughout scripture and I thought I would share some of my observations with you.

I see two types of physical rain in scripture. There is the type of rain which can be a scary, flooding, destroying, downpour, an example of which we see in Genesis with the Noah flood. The other type of rain is a sweet rain, a rain which nourishes a dry and thirsty ground, an example of this can be seen in 1 Kings. In Verse 18:1 of 1 Kings it says

"And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth."

Then in verse 41 it says

"Then Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain."

This was the end of a drought. These people were happy to see the rain finally come.
Now, the other type of rain I see in scripture is not physical but is used for the sake of analogy.
We see examples of this many times throughout scripture, here are a few examples:

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow (or unplowed, unproductive) ground
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:12

I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing;
and I will cause showers to come down in their season;
there shall be showers of blessing.
Ezekiel 34:26

There are many more verses where things like righteousness and blessings are said to "shower" down. Now the question which came to my mind while I was studying is this: Why did the Lord use the comparison of rain in these instances? I think it is because He wants us to know that the righteousness and the blessings which He will shower down are going to be abundant. Not only will they be abundant but they are going to be refreshing as well, like rain is to a dry, parched and thirsty ground.

So when storm clouds come, they don't necessarily mean dark days ahead. As the above verse from Zechariah says, flashing clouds, which we often think of as frightening, also come before blessing and refreshment. If there are dark clouds in your life right now, don't despair. Thank the Lord for the clouds and get on your knees and let's pray together for rain.