It's March. Beautiful, beautiful March.
Today is now Tuesday. And it has been a crazy one...like they often are.
However, we were released from choir 30 mintues early which gave me time to run home, check my mail and hit Happy Hour before heading back to the school for my photography class.
I ordered my usual, a $1.27 Route 44 Diet Coke, and then reached for the hand-written card with my name on it, a piece of mail that I had hurriedly tossed in the passenger's seat.
In Arkansas, that means that the days already feel like summer. Eveyone wants to be outside in shorts and t-shirts enjoying the bright blue clouds, warm sunshine and fragrant flowers.
However,
for college kids, this means that the semester is half over....or should I say that its time for test, project and paper palooza.
Though Spring Break is within arms reach, there is still so much to be done. Even so, Mondays are my day of solace...
Yesterday I was talking with a very wise woman about rain. Not just rain, but Biblical rain.
Though Spring Break is within arms reach, there is still so much to be done. Even so, Mondays are my day of solace...
Yesterday I was talking with a very wise woman about rain. Not just rain, but Biblical rain.
The former and latter rains.
The former rain is the early rain. It comes in the autumn and is supposed to prepare the ground for seeds to be sown. It is normally light and falls like dew, soft but nourishing.
The latter rain comes in the spring...just before the harvest. Its job? To prepare the crop so that the harvest will be plentiful. It is often needed...longed for...heavy.
Though I could discuss our entire talk here, I want to leave you all with mere snippets so that you will investigate rain yourselves:
The Old Testament belief was that God's favor was in the rain... (Proverbs 16:15)
The Old Testament belief was that God's favor was in the rain... (Proverbs 16:15)
Anytime there is rain, you see God's glory... (Joel 2:33)
It's okay to ask God for rain... (Jeremiah 5:24)
But why should we care about the former and latter rains...and better yet how is this relevant to my blog post?
One thing that we know is that the rains always show God's faithfulness and his harvest.
One thing that we know is that the rains always show God's faithfulness and his harvest.
It normally looked like this in the Old Testament:
You obey. You get rain. You eat.
You don't obey. You don't get rain. You don't eat.
The wonderfully wise woman encouraged me to pray for rain in my life....
I've been praying a while for certain former rains and I truly believe that God has been sowing seeds in the lives of my friends and loved ones...
but I hadn't really been praying for latter rain.
So I did.
I prayed that God would not only prepare the hearts of those that I will meet in Italy (former rain), but that once my team got there He will drawn His Italian children to Himself (latter rain). I also thanked him for sending me to Italy and for the $2,500 dollars in funds so far (former rain), but prayed for the rest of his monetary provision (latter rain).
Today is now Tuesday. And it has been a crazy one...like they often are.
However, we were released from choir 30 mintues early which gave me time to run home, check my mail and hit Happy Hour before heading back to the school for my photography class.
I ordered my usual, a $1.27 Route 44 Diet Coke, and then reached for the hand-written card with my name on it, a piece of mail that I had hurriedly tossed in the passenger's seat.
The front of it read, "Just thinking about you"
yet
yet
Its contents were full of rain...
Not only did it hold a $100 check for my mission trip, but the inside fold read, "...and asking the Lord to shower you with His blessings today!"
Let His rain fall...
"...I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing."
-Ezekiek 34:26
