Harvest Community Church

There’s something about a dry spell that gets people talking. I’ve been hearing it from almost everyone: “Man, this has been a dry summer.” Yep, there’s no denying it, the lack of rain is a big deal. Lawns are dead, fruit stands are deserted, and farmers are defeated. This past summer will go down in the record books as a parched and desolate season, but was it the driest summer we’ve ever had? Not even close.

If your grandparents are around, they could probably tell you about a drought in the 1930s when it didn’t rain for nine years. In the breadbasket of the country, our richest farmlands were turned into a dust bowl. In 1934, 34 states experienced severe droughts. On April 14, 1935, a day known as Black Sunday, the wind whipped across the parched farmland and blew up the dust into an enormous black blizzard that whisked away countless acres of topsoil. That’s what a drought is like, and most of us have never experienced a real one – not in our countryside, at least. But sadly, too often we experience a drought in our spirits.

The Bible teaches in Isaiah 58:11 and in many other places that the human heart is like a garden. Your heart is the immaterial part of you that can know God; it’s the part that will live forever. If you weed and water and tend your heart as Scripture instructs, you’ll experience a bumper crop of God’s grace in your life. Conversely, if you fail to garden your heart, first it will become overgrown with weeds, then it will become lifeless and dry, and eventually it will disappear in a spiritual dust storm. Second Corinthians 4 twice exhorts us not to lose heart because if we do, we’ve lost everything. No wonder the wisest man who ever lived exhorted, “Guard your heart!” (Pro. 4:23, NIV). You can take care of your heart.

Like me, maybe you’ve experienced some parched days in your relationship with God. Maybe you’ve known the sadness of falling in exhaustion and watching through weary eyes as your heart for something or someone begins to shrivel. Maybe you’ve had seasons when time with God was nonexistent and weekend worship was Black Sunday for sure – not because of where the pastor or the people were in their hearts but because of where you were in yours. Now hear this: times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (see Acts 3:20).

You – yes, YOU – can have a fresh downpour of God’s grace and mercy on your life. Your hands can feel a surge of energy to labor for our King. The eyes that see these words can gaze in renewed wonder and awe on the God who loves you. The heart that beats within your chest this moment can pulse with renewed joy given by God in response to choices you make and actions you take. Honest! God is not reluctant; He is ready and willing.

Read again this amazing assurance given by the prophet Hosea: “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hos. 6:1-3).

Adapted from Downpour by Pastor James MacDonald