Praying For Rain

"then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit."  Leviticus 26:4

Last week we went on our annual family camping vacation, (which is why I wasn't posting) and had a wonderful, wonderful week.  God really smiled on us all week long.  The weather was perfect, the bugs were  non-existent, and the night-time hours brought the sweetest, most restful sleep.  I can't tell you how wonderful it was to spend the week not worrying about rain, and keeping everything dry.  And yet, there was a part of me, all week long, who was continuing to pray for rain, because it has been so dry.  Well, the last night of our trip we got to experience that bit of rain.  While it wasn't fun dealing with the aftermath of everything being wet, the torrential downpour that completely soaked us was actually kind of fun to experience.  It made me think that all the dry earth around us would rejoice so much to experience such a soaking.

We're teetering on the brink with a widespread drought this year.  If the paper I was reading yesterday was correct, much of our region is in that make-or-break spot, where we need a good soaking soon, or the crops will be headed to the point of no return.  Our immediate area experienced some of this rain in the last 24 hours, but we sure still need more.  This morning as I look out the window, some of the lawns have thankfully lost their crispy edges, but there is definitely still plenty of brown there. 

I'll tell you though, I am having kind of a difficult time with praying for rain right now.   Andy took a week off of work for our vacation, and he doesn't get compensated for it.  We can't really afford a week without pay right now, but we felt he really needed the time away anyway.  His job relies on it not raining, so he can be working outside.  Even on the weekends, he has some tree work coming up and he needs it to not rain so he can do the tree work and make up for the missed income, plus bring in extra to take care of some immediate needs for our vehicles.

So how do I pray for rain?  God's timing is absolute perfection.  He knows the perfect times to let the rains loose.  And more than that, he knows where.  Right now, as I type this, another round of rain is passing through.  It makes me smile and grin, and think about how much God knows and loves us, because where Andy is working today is well south of this band of showers.  So he can put in his full day of work while our ground gets another soaking. 

And so this morning I hope you will join me in praying for rain.  Our country sure needs it, we're hovering on the brink of another dust bowl, but if we seek the Lord and ask for His intervention, perhaps we can help make a difference.  Because if you look at the verse posted up above- that right there is another one of God's promises.  He promises to send the rains in the right seasons- and the season is NOW. But more than that, once the rains come, the land will yield its produce, and the trees their fruit.  We will NOT experience another dust bowl on our watch.

May God bless this nation with a pouring of rain.  May he quench the parched lands with the healing rains of heaven, and may the coming harvest be so abundant, that the people will be amazed and will know that only God above could have provided the abundance before them.  May God heal our land, and bless the people across the nation.