I went for a walk in the rain tonight after I got home. I asked my friend if he wanted to join me, but he declined. I had to re-charge my laundry card, but instead of driving, I decided to take advantage of the moderately warm evening and walk the the down pour. It’s amazing what types of revelations you can acquire in the rain. A few things bubbled up in my mind as I was walking so I figure I’ll share them with the 1 or 2 people that actually read this thing. I realized how unbelieveably merciful God is to His creation.
We often times will refer God’s blessings as a ‘rain’, or ask for a downpour of His grace and Holy Spirit. It’s funny how over-used cliche’s can lose their meaning when we don’t relate the cliche to the event. Walking in the rain tonight, no matter where I stood, I was getting wet. I couldn’t run fast enough to dry off, I couldn’t dodge the raindrops. I couldn’t tell them how to fall or what to water. All I could do is get wet. But the rain didn’t fall for the sole purpose of getting me wet. The rain came to revive and feed the plants and animals of God’s created kingdom. I didn’t by chance happen to be outside, I chose to be outside. God’s rain comes quite frequently, but we chose to stay safe and dry in a sheltered environment.
I realized that our spiritual saturation is not a random thing, like the pastor preached on sunday. God’s revivals don’t ‘just happen’. They come on a people who’s hearts have been humbled, whose lives have been filled with prayer, and whose hearts cry out for forgiveness. Those people choose to step out into the rain and get soaked with God’s glory. They don’t try to dodge it, and they dare not push their will or desires on it. Instead they fall to their knees in the open fields of brokeness and refuse to leave until every ounce of them has been washed clean by the rains of mercy.
Meanwhile, others sit inside and look out the window. They may see the person oustide and think, “What a fool, he’s getting all wet. What’s that possibly doing for them?” Many people refuse to get outside of their houses. They don’t realize that these rains aren’t random. They are ordained and controlled by God on high and until we take the initiative to search out God’s storms of incomparable bliss, we’ll never feel the refreshment that follows.
God’s blessings aren’t random. The move of His spirit isn’t a hit and miss phenomenon known only to devout biblical scholars. His blessings are predictable, much like the rain. But predicting them, and experiencing them are two very different things.
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