Growing up, I remember listening to rain as it pelted our windows and filled our streets with large puddles. One specific time, after a rainstorm, we ran outside barefooted and splashed in the puddles, only to notice a larger one down the street which proved to be knee high by the time we got there. As the rain fell from the sky, it would tickle our skin, and joyful shrieks could be heard. We hadn’t really prayed for rain, as it wasn’t a need at the time, but we were joyful to have it and receive the blessings from it!
On the flip side, I also remember having summers where we were restricted in our water usage because of drought conditions. We waited and longed for rain, but never a cloud in the sky forecasted a shower. Then one day, the meteorologist spoke the anticipated word, “rain”. Oh, how we had waited and hoped it would come. Finally, the sky grew dark and there was a little drop here, a little drop there, eventually turning into soaking downpours. We ran outside with our hands stretched heavenward, letting the rain run down our arms, truly saturating ourselves from head to toe while joyously receiving the long-awaited desire.
Our prayer life at times can resemble either one of these scenarios! There are times we feel and know the blessings of God. They keep coming, like rain saturating an already fertile ground. Or there are times we are in what seems to be the drought of our prayer life. We beg God with requests for salvation of a loved one, a relationship that we want back, or a child that is wayward, but we have not yet received an answer. We focus our days on praying and we look for the rain clouds of blessing but only see the shadows of the sun. The burden we carry is heavy and no one understands its load, yet there is One who says to us, “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee” (Psalm 55:22 KJV). We ask the Lord to relieve our fears, our burdens, our sicknesses, or financial burdens and to bless us with His rain of blessings. Yet in our stillness, we hear Him say that His grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9).
First Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV) says we are to “pray without ceasing,” whether we are in a season of blessing or what appears to be a drought! It is easy to neglect prayer when His rain of blessings is steadily falling upon us. In times of drought, we seem to seek the Lord more earnestly, and desire for Him to hear our prayers. We must pray for blessings to fall like rain without ceasing, both in times of blessings and in times of drought, with hands stretched heavenward. As we do, may we always anticipate His rain of blessings upon us, that will continually saturate every part of our spiritual being as we pray without ceasing.
