Looks Like Rain

Living here in Southern California, we’re all aware that we entering into our fourth year of a severe drought. Water shortage is nothing new to this region, or many others for that matter and the truth is, we should be conserving water in times like this. I do however, always find it ironic how one part of the country can be so severely dry, while just a couple of states away, there is flooding. That never fails to amaze me.

Being in the severe drought that we are in, reminds me of a story that perhaps you’re familiar with as well. Forgive me if some of the details of the story are not quite accurate, but I’m just repeating it the way it was told to me. It goes something like this.

Apparently, a few decades ago, there was a part of the country that was suffering from a terrible drought. One that had reached a point where people’s lives and livelihoods were being affected, including farmers, whose crops were drying up and livestock were in danger of dying of thirst. In an effort to try to help the situation, the community did what many of us do in times of need…they turned to God. 

In light of the situation, one local minister in his humility, asked the members of his own congregation to gather together and pray for rain. So they did just that, they gathered together as a group to pray. Everyone showed up for the prayer service. During the service, the Pastor noticed sitting in the front row, a young girl who, in her childlike faith, had brought with her an umbrella with her. Out of all the people that showed up, she was the only one who brought an umbrella with her. 

Isn’t it amazing how much we can learn from a child? 

What exactly is it that this little girl’s actions teach us? There are several things that we can take away from this story. First, the biggest thing I think it points directly to, is in the Gospel, Matthew 18: 1 – 5. This scripture tells us that we are to become like children. Meaning we need to have the kind of trust that children have for adults and trust that when we ask God for something, as He has promised us, HE WILL PROVIDE. 

That little girl, who’s parents probably told her exactly what they were going to pray for, had no doubts whatsoever that when she asked God for rain, it would come! THAT my friends, is the kind of faith we need to have. Confident that not only does God hear our prayers, but that He will answer them. Too often, when our prayers go unanswered (according to us) we start to have doubts and sometimes, even to the point where we question our faith in God. When we do that, we fall short of what He asks us to do, and that is to simply believe in Him, in the same way that little girl truly believed that she would need that umbrella that very night.

I’m pretty sure that at some point in your life, you felt like God just isn’t hearing your prayers, or that He doesn’t care about your needs, or worse yet, that maybe He forgot about you. I’m guilty of that myself. Why? Because we are human and in our weakness, we can sometimes easily give up on ourselves, or even God. 

So what do we do when we go through our own storms in life and reach the point where we just want to throw our hands in the air and say, “I’m done, I give up”? The answers are many and different for all of us, except for one. 

PRAY FOR STRENGTH.

I don’t care who you are, at some point in our lives, we all go through our own droughts and we become weak or helpless, our strength is gone, we feel defeated and sometimes, like a crack in our armor, we are left vulnerable to an unseen enemy. So what do we do? That’s when we try to become like that child and with whatever strength we have left, we believe. Like a wounded child reaching out to their father, asking to be carried, we reach out to Jesus and ask Him to hold us in His loving arms, and carry us. Carry us because we don’t have the strength to carry ourselves. And you know what? He will. But you have to believe that He will, not just hope that He will. Psalm 55:23 tells us; 

Cast your care upon the LORD, who will give you support. He will never allow the righteous to stumble.

That sounds pretty reassuring to me. Don’t you think so? I know that when there are times when it feels like you’ve reached “rock bottom” that even praying for strength seems out of reach. But the truth is, sometimes, even just a small prayer, (like that of a small child), can make a HUGE difference. 

So, the next time you feel like your life is one big drought, PRAY FOR RAIN!