Rain can be awfully inconvenient.
Outdoor activities planned months in advance can be ruined, or at least need to be rearranged, when an unforeseen rainstorm blows in. Grocery shopping becomes a big mess when we have to cart our bags in and out in the rain. Rain makes roads slick, creating driving hazards.
Rain can also be gloomy when we haven't seen the sun for days.
One of my worst rain experiences came when I was driving home alone. The rain fell so heavily, my windshield wipers couldn't keep up. I literally could not see anything around me except the faint glow of other headlights. I somehow made it to the parking lot of a convenience store and waited til the showers abated, hoping no one would run into me.
And then there are thunderstorms with the potential to down power lines, send limbs crashing from trees, or strike lightning.
Yet, we need rain.
Rain softens the ground, making it easier to plant seeds. Then those seeds transform into flowers or food with more rain and sunshine.
Rain relieves the scorching heat of summer.
Rain provides water to drink and replenishes water tables for future needs.
Rain washed impurities out of the air.
F. B. Meyer wrote:
We all love the sunshine, but the Arabs have a proverb that 'all sunshine makes the desert'; and it is a matter for common observation that the graces of Christian living are more often apparent in the case of those who have passed through great tribulation. God desires to get as rich crops as possible from the soil of our natures. There are certain plants of the Christian life, such as meekness, gentleness, kindness, humility, which cannot come to perfection if the sun of prosperity always shines. (1)
That's true, isn't it?
Just as I don't like rain to interrupt my plans or make my tasks harder, I don't like when trials and problems come up. They're hard, painful, and sometimes costly. They take time and thought and energy from things I'd rather do.
But they have a good purpose.
When life is going well, we can get complacent. People who get everything they want and have everything just the way they like it sometimes start to feel entitled.
Though we know we need God's grace and help in every circumstance, we feel our need of Him more during trials.
Trials soften us by humbling us. They show us our lack of strength and our need for His. They help us depend on Him more.
Trials help us grow. "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:3-5).
Trials help us to be grateful for what we have.
Trials can help wash impurities out as we search our hearts and confess wrong thoughts, deeds, and attitudes to God. Trials don't always come because of sin, but when they do, they have a cleansing effect.
Trials point us to those unseen resources I mentioned last week. Hidden water tables of grace sustain us during dry periods.
God's Word refreshes us with His promises:
And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing (Ezekiel 34:26).
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you (Hosea 10:12).
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 (Hosea 6:3).
He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17b).
One of my favorite childhood memories involves rain. My mom let us put on our bathing suits to go outside and play in a mild rain shower. I don't know what time of year it was, but it had to have been during warm enough weather to get wet outside. Perhaps the rain was cooling on a hot summer's day.
There was no thought of mess or inconvenience or disrupted plans. Instead, there was pure joy at the opportunity to do something so different and refreshing.
I can't honestly say I dance for joy when trials come. But I am trying to learn to "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 3:2-4). God has good purposes in trials and sends them in love and faithfulness.
Rain can be inconvenient, but also refreshing. All sunshine, as the saying goes, makes a desert. God keeps us from desert hardness and barrenness by sending trials our way. As William Cowper says in his hymn, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way":
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.
(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)
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(1) This quote comes from Our Daily Homily by F. B. Meyer. I've not read this book, but I have seen the quote in Warren Wiersbe's book Be Satisfied as well as other places.
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