-
Now, Send The Rain!
Contributed by Keenan Darnell on Jan 12, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: We often pray, "Lord, Send the Rain, Lord, send revival, Lord send a blessing", but are we really ready and prepared for it? Find out what it takes to prepare for the Rain.
Text Scripture Genesis 2:4,5 KJV 4. These are the generations of the heavens, and the earth when they were created, in the day the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,5. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and evry herb of the earth before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Are you ready for revival? Are you ready for a blessing? Are you ready for the rain? Lets take a moment to be sure we are ready.
As a young man around the age of 8 or 9 my dad was the pastor of a small church in Quitman, Mississippi. We didn’t have alot of things to do in this very rural town, fishing, hunting, and walking across the stret to visit my favorite ole farmer who’s name was P.O. ( I think that was just his nick name)P.O. was a farmer who grew alot of vegtables, but mostly watermelons, he encouraged me and my brother to grow our own garden, so we convinced our dad to borrow a tractor to plow up the field. As my dad plowed a small section of the field, my brother and I decided it wasn’t near big enough, so we convinced dad to make it bigger. I’ll never forget dad’s words,"If I till this up, you had better take care of it" "Oh we will Dad" very eagerly we said. We spent alot of time planting seed, watering, and pulling weeds. everyday when the school bus dropped us off we would run to the garden to see if anything was growing yet. After a short span of time we begin to loose intrest in the garden, it was alot of work, pulling weeds, freshining up the soil around the plants treating for insects. After all I was young and had more important things to do. As time passed I walked over to the garden and saw nothing but weeds, they had overtaken all the vetables and fruit we had planted. We learned a good hard lesson that year, not only to have dad plow a smaller garden, but also it takes alot of work to reap the benefits of great vegtables and fruit.
How much labor should we put into our spiritual lives before we reap the benefits of Gods blessings? As we read here in our text, God did not cause rain upon the earth because there was no one to till the land, or work for the growth intended, however God had a plan, the creation of man. Until man was created, and was able to take care of the earth, there was a mist that came up from the ground, just enough to satisfy, or keep alive the creation. My question to you today is, are you still surviving on a spiritual mist? Just enough to keep you alive, just enough to keep you through the day? My friend know this today, God has so much more for you than you could ever exspect, don’t be happy with a spiritual mist,It doesn’t take long for the weeds, and sin of life to take over your life, but labor for the rain!
What must I do to recieve the rain, blessing, growth? Work!!!Work!!!Work!!! It’s way to easy to just simply say, "OK God Send the rain now", but when a child of God will spend time in prayer, even when they don’t feel like it, When a child of God will read the word, even when they don’t feel like it, when a child of God will worship, even when they don’t feel like it, that tells God it’s OK to send the rain.
We live in a society that tells us "Have it your way", "get it now, and fast", it’s always whats better, whats faster,what’s easiest. I personaly like a home cooked meal better than a fast food drive through, but the home cooked meal takes a little more time, OH, but it’s worth the wait, and it’s worth the labor to set back relax and enjoy the fresh taste of a big home cooked meal, I esspecialy like Mom’s Cookin. Better move on, I’m getting hungry!
Today the only way to get to the heart of God is to love, worship, and serve Him, you can’t send an e-mail, or a text message, or IM, you can’t get on God’s my space,or even mail a letter, However the Old Fashioned way still works just fine, it’s called Fasting, Praying, Worshiping, Serving, Dying to self, resisting the Temtaions, Reading the bible, ect. I challenge you to spend more time with God than watching TV, or being on the computer, and see if God won’t pour out a blessing to cause a spiritual growth in your life.
So when we pray "God send the rain" be prepared to labor for Him, He won’t send it if there is no one to till the land.