When it rains, it pours.
It’s a good slogan for a salt company, but it was also true in Tennessee one February. The total rainfall for 28 days was 12.55 inches. We felt every wet inch of it. It rained so hard and so often that the creeks overflowed their banks, the rivers crested, the school buses stopped running, and the birds took baths in the street. The yards were so soggy that we had to wear boots to walk to the mailbox, and, if we slipped and fell, we had to wring ourselves out.
Many homes were flooded and families displaced. The abundance of water pouring from the sky overwhelmed people and made them desperate for the touch of sunshine, as thoughts of Noah filled their heads. At one point, I looked out my back door and saw a small creek running along the edge of my yard where no creek had been before. I had always wanted a creek on my property, but not an illegitimate offspring from a too-full water table.
Everyone prayed for the heavens to shut their doors and for the deluge to stop. We longed for a dry spell.
As Christ followers, our prayer should be the exact opposite. We should pray for the dry spell to stop and for the pouring to begin. Paul says God pours His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Pours … not sprinkles.
God longs to shower us with His love and mercy, and we should pray for a ceaseless outpouring. Not a soggy one—where our spirits are weighed down with stagnant water—but a sparkling stream that moves in the power of love until it splashes out onto others.
If your spirit feels dry and dusty—or if your spirit is absorbing too much of God’s goodness for itself—open the floodgates, and let God’s love pour through you to others. Those around you will be glad you did.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
Jeannie Thompson is a lover of Jesus who loves to write as a means to further the kingdom. She is a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature and a former kindergarten teacher who still enjoys teaching at her church. Jeannie is married to Joe, and they have one grown daughter.