Saturday, February 7, 2009

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.

4 comments:

The Vintage Rose said...

Its been raining here in Australia and Victoria needs rain to put out bushfires/wildfires but without wind and without lightning strikes.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about rain in the Bible! God's timing is so good...my family has been in great time of storms and needs a little shower of blessings in the form of rain! I will ponder these sweet words today because I know GOD gave them just for my dry soul! And begin praying for *GODs* rain!
Have a blessed day!
Lorena

Radiant Hope said...

I am a Christian artist and have been drawing and painting clouds and 'activating rain'. I would recommend listening to Godfrey Birtill's "Fruitful Vineyard" worship song on his CD called 'Very God'.
It's been a lovely encouragement reading your website this morning. If you'd like to see the images I've made, please do email me.
God Bless :-)

Regina said...

This morning I Googled, "scripture on rain" and it brought me to your site. You shared that you have felt led to pray for rain, but not sure why. Well, me too! My husband and I farm a large amount of land in Western Colorado and we have had little to no know in our part of the state this year. Our water for irrigation comes from the water melting off the snowcapped mountains in Spring. Things are looking bleek and no expected snow storms predicted. Our God is bigger and greater and so I am looking for some scriptures to stand on during this time. Lord, let it rain. Not only in our land, but also rain your spirit upon our hearts.
Thanks for sharing and obeying Him.
Regina