I love rain. I love the smell of rain even before the first drop falls. As a child, I would lie in the door and watch the rain. To this day, I love to fall asleep listening to the rain. While too much rain can cause severe damage, especially when coupled with strong winds and deafening thunder, the fact is, life wouldn’t exist without the rain. 

In eastern climates, rain only falls in two seasons–Autumn, when  seeds are planted, and Spring, when  crops are growing. Therefore, adequate rain in biblical times was considered a blessing of God.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower, and bread to the eater (Isaiah 55:10 ESV).

God is sovereign over the rain. In Amos 4:7-8, God said He withheld the rain from one area and then another in the hope that the drought would drive His people to return to Him, but they did not. Rain is often portrayed as God's provision for His creation. In Psalm 65:9-10, the Psalmist affirms that God cares for the land and water and abundantly enriches it. In 1 Kings 18, rain was the evidence of God's mercy and compassion, and in Joel 2:23-29, the prophet used rain to describe how God poured out His Spirit upon the people, signifying a spiritual awakening. 

Just as the earth would be uninhabitable without rain, the soul of man is irredeemable apart from God’s grace. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, the Apostle Paul said, All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So, we must remember it is only through the word of God that God’s grace is offered. So shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11). 

Many parts of the world are in desperate need of rain today. Likewise, millions with sin-parched souls are in desperate need of the refreshing, convicting, and cleansing news of the gospel. Millions of others have heard the gospel and tasted the goodness of the Word of God, but they need to be saturated with the gospel so the showers of God's blessing may fall all over them. 

Can we not see the urgent need for a spiritual awakening? Parched fields, withering plants, and desperate animals in search of water remind us of the hard-hearted, sin-sick souls that have not heard the good news and the yearning souls of those who received it but are not living it. Just as a newborn cannot ask for milk in comprehensible words, a lost sinner or a backslidden believer doesn’t always know what they need to satisfy the longing in their soul. But, just as a mother knows what her newborn needs, our Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need: to be delivered from our sins by God’s grace.

Let us pray for God to rend the heavens and pour out blessings upon us. God's people need to be immersed in the gospel. Just as a gentle rain will soften hardened earth, so will the truth, spoken in love, relax stubborn hearts. Yet, many churches dilute the gospel to avoid offending sinners. Worse yet, some alter the gospel to accommodate the sins of unbelievers. In doing so, they drive them further away from God, causing them to harden their hearts to His saving grace which is only available through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

In 1833, Daniel Webster wrote the lyrics to the hymn, “There Shall be Showers of Blessing.” The hymn was based on Ezekiel 34:26-27, where God said, And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. Verse three of this beautiful song reads: “There shall be showers of blessing; Send them upon us, O Lord! Grant to us now a refreshing; Come, and now honor Thy Word.” 

Amen!