Monday, June 30, 2008

Send the Rain!

Hey guys. Nothing like procrastinating my blogging to where, for the moment, I only have a blog basically for each month. I have so much to share with you about California and Mexico (Lindsay took care of a lot about Leon.) Anyway, I've decided to divide my thoughts up into a series of blogs so I don't have one lloonngg one that no one wants to read. Tonight though I'm not blogging about my trips. b4 I share anything about them I'm going to pray and ask God to show me what to share and how to share it so the glory for everything I've seen and experienced this past month will go to him and not myself for anything I say.

Tonight, before I go to bed, I'd like to share something that stood out to me in Shane's blog that I just read. It came from this excerpt:

"If you find yourself in a tough situation right now, please don’t lose hope. God may be preparing you for something in your future. Or, perhaps, you may be learning what true contentment and joy are all about – a lesson learned by remaining in difficult circumstances rather than by always being delivered from them.Until that becomes clear, wait...and trust...and hope."

The one word that stood out to me is preparing. I just recently watched facing the Giants Saturday. (It always makes me cry.) There were many parts that hit me in a whole new way. The part that the word prepare reminded me of was a story that God , through this one guy, told to the main character who was going through several difficult situations.
It goes something like this:
Two men were praying to God for rain. They both prayed and prayed, but only one man went out and prepared his fields for it. Now which man do you think trusted God to send the rain? The one who prepared his fields.
We should likewise be preparing our 'fields' in life and be preparing ourselves. We may be in tough situations, but there is no reason to lose hope. (easier said than done.) Whether God is preparing us for something in the future, or whether it's a lesson to learn true contentment and joy we need to (like shane said) wait, trust, and hope. But even more than that we need to prepare our hearts and our lives to recieve the 'rain' that we believe through faith is coming after and/or through the tough situation and difficult circumstances. Every situation and obstacle that we face in life has a purpose and the potential to change our lives if we'd only prepare to let it.

Wait, Trust, Hope, and Prepare for God to work.