The other morning as my mom and I walked up the hill to the house after picking veggies in the garden, my mom said, “I just wish we could get some rain.” We continued to talk about how much rain one of our landlords to the north said he got the night before and how we were happy that at least somebody was getting some rain, but man did we need some around home. And then it hit me. I looked at my mom and said, “Honestly though, have you prayed for rain? Because I know I sure haven’t.” 

The conviction just set in on me as I realized how often we simply trust in the weather patterns and hope that it will all happen to work out for our good. And when you think about it, that speaks a lot about what we’re putting our hope in. We’re putting our hope in the acts of nature – the creation – instead of the Creator. So do we truly believe that God will provide for us? Or that He is ultimately in control of all things? We say and believe that He created the earth and everything in it in six days and rested on the seventh. We say and believe that He sent rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights and that the rainbow is the symbol of His promise to never wipe out everything on the earth in that way again. So why don’t we say and believe that He’ll provide us with the rain that we need to raise our crops? Is our faith genuine? 

It seems as though our hope lies in this assumed belief that what will happen is what’s supposed to happen. But the truth is that we don’t just have to hope. We can come before the Lord, our living God, the Creator of all things, and ask. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus tells us “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” My intentions are to pray at least once a day. I often ask for God to strengthen and comfort the people in my life who are mourning, to deliver my loved ones from the hardships that they’re walking through, and to stir in the hearts of those who haven’t truly accepted Him into their hearts. I’d like to believe that I actually trust that He’ll do all of those things. So why don’t I ask Him to bring the rain? I think it comes down to what my trust truly lies in. So often we overlook the Creator and look straight to the creation, choosing to put our trust in that instead. 

So maybe it’s on us. Maybe God is withholding the rain because He wants us to recognize who’s in control. Maybe He wants us to turn to Him and fervently pray for Him to provide us with the rain needed to nourish our crops. Because maybe we needed a heart check to open our eyes and realize what we were actually putting our hope in, and to change.

August 3, 2023