By Gina Caswell Kelly
Finally got a little rain last night. It was about a half inch, but it surely did make things look brighter and cleaner this morning. My yard just looked fresher already! Okay. Maybe that was my imagination, but the sun glistening off that wet grass was surely a pretty sight!
We have been, and still are, in a horrible drought situation around here. We have not really had much in measurable rainfall in about eight months. And we did not have a whole lot before that. Every prayer that is offered in any meeting or at church seems to begin with a request for rain. There is nothing wrong with that. We are supposed to make our requests known to God. It is not that He doesn’t already know what we need. It is just that it is a good reminder to us that all that we need does come from God. It is a good reminder that we are to depend on Him for what we need and for wisdom to use what we have.
Several years ago, we were in another drought situation. It was a terribly dry time. Just like this one. No moisture of any kind in many months and not much moisture base before then. I remember I was driving in the country and looking at the dry barren land and I was pleading with God for rainfall. As clear as a bell, He brought to my mind this thought. “Why are you not praying just as hard, with just as much fervor, for the lost of the world? For the lost people that you see each day? You pray for rain like it is the most important thing in the world. Are My children who are living lives without knowing my Son not more important? Are the lives of people you know who are heading towards hell not more important that rainfall?” I absolutely had to pull over.
Again, He was not saying don’t ask for rain. But He was saying we need that same sense of urgency for those around us who don’t have that personal relationship with the Savior. He was reminding me of my true purpose in living on this earth. To show the world Jesus. To bring others to know Him. To live my life as a witness and to be urgent in my prayers for those around me.
Please continue to pray for rain, but find in your heart that same urgency about the drought among the people around us. The people who are thirsty for something they don’t even know exists. The people who have that thirst and dryness that can only be quenched by the Savior. We have to be urgent in this world that seems to be more full of hurt each day. More full of anger and division each day. More full of all those things that are counter to what the Christian life can bring.
Pray for those people around you. It will make a difference!
