Slow Soaking Rain

The old joke is, "It's been so dry in Grove lately that the Baptists have started sprinkling and the Methodists are giving rainchecks."  The ground is parched and every living thing is struggling for a drop of rain.  Last night, we got a welcome little shower.  Huge drops of rain fell for about five minutes, cooling off the landscape and teasing the ground with the promise of relief.  But for the most part, it passed without having a major impact on the condition of the ground.  What we really need is a slow soaking rain that lasts for about 24 hours and softens the ground and sinks in deep rather than just running off of the hardened surface.
The Bible likens our heart and soul to the ground under our feet.  It is there that the Spirit plants its seed and seeks to bring forth life and fruit.  Often, for any number of reasons, we begin to get parched and dry.  Somehow our hearts get hardened by the circumstances of life or the pain of relating with fallen people and we begin to wander away from the wellspring of living water that the Holy Spirit has promised to provide.  We hear the preaching, but it doesn't sink in.  We read our Bibles, but the truth of the Word just seems to run right off, never penetrating our hardened hearts. Before long, we are spiritually dying of thirst.
What we need more than anything else is a slow infusion of God's Word that sinks in deep and softens those areas of our heart that we have allowed to become dry and crusty.  You can see the impact of what I am talking about when we send our teens off to camp or our men go to a retreat or we have an extended revival meeting. People receive a steady diet of biblical truth for an extended period of time and it is able to soak through the hardness that continual exposure to the world and its negative influences causes.  The result is a new awareness of the still, small voice of God speaking to their heart and a new willingness to listen and follow.
If you have found that your heart has become dry and crusty, then I would have a few words of encouragement for you this morning.  First, take a new approach to God's Word.  Determine to read it every day, but begin with a prayer that God would show you something that He put there just for you and then don't stop reading until you find it.  Second, recommit yourself to living your life in community with other believers.  While being in relationship with others is often hard and sometimes painful, it is also one of the best ways for God to teach you to walk with Him.  And third, seek out new and effective ways to get a continual flow of God's Word into your life, whether it is through listening to Christian radio, praise and worship music on your iPod, or cassette tapes of Scripture reading or preaching, find a way to get a daily infusion of His Word.  Then sit back and watch what God can do in good soil that has been softened by the rain.
Yes, it's been dry, but showers of blessing are in the forecast.