How to Get "Rain Ready"
You ready for this?
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When I was a pre-teen, my church took the youth on a trip to Six Flags Amusement Park. I was excited to go, not so much about the many rides and the arcade, but that I would be hanging out with my best friend, Terry. Terry and I were like two sides of the same coin. I knew this was going to be fun.
But I guess someone didn’t check the forecast or didn’t get God’s memo about the weather because it began to rain shortly after we got there. I’m not talking about a light shower. It poured buckets of water. At first, you saw people casually walking park pathways and waiting in lines for rides. Now, the paths were cleared out and all you saw were soggy patrons hiding under storefronts or brave souls racing to their cars.
But not Terry and I. We were going to make the most of this trip.
Have you ever seen the movie, “Singing in the Rain”? That was us. I don’t remember if she started it or I did, but instead of ducking for cover we started to sing.
In the rain. Dance. In the rain.
We swung around lamp posts. Danced and played in the puddles.
As I opened my mouth to the sky, I could feel rain drops on my tongue.
We were loud and happy and having a blast. You could see people peeping out, smiling at us from the safety of store overhangs and canopies. We took full advantage of the downpour. It didn’t matter that we were completely drenched.
You don’t get many moments like this.
Open the floodgates of heaven. Let it rain, let it rain.*
Have you ever felt like you were in a drought? A drought is a season lack. No one calls a sunny day with no precipitation a drought. Droughts are created from days, months, sometimes years of going without.
It’s a time when the earth dries up. Resources dry up. You dry up.
Dry seasons can make you feel lost. Abandoned.
Exiled.
But every drought has an end. God has not forgotten you.
This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:10-11
Can you can trust God in a desert? True faith reveals itself in dry places.
This is a season of comebacks, but only if you believe God is coming back for you.
Open the floodgates of heaven.
Let it rain, let it rain.
It is His divine will that defines you, not the drought. Make preparation now for the abundance of God. No, it won’t come when we want – only when He wants. We just have to be in position to receive it and reap the benefits.
So how do you get “Rain Ready”?
Build where you are.
Plant where you are.
Increase where you are.
Pray where you are.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Jeremiah 29:4-7
Build. Plant. Increase. Pray.
If you can do that in a drought, imagine how much more the blessing when the rain falls!
This is about to get good.
Open your mouth to the sky with a praise of expectation.
Feel the drops of His favor on your tongue.
A downpour is coming. Get ready to get drenched.
See you next Tuesday.
*From Michael W. Smith’s “Let it Rain”
