“SUMMER HEAT” – August 14

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”  Jeremiah 17:7-8

Utah desert Mist (Photo credit: Loco Steve)

My personal battle with gophers continues but the media has changed.  The gophers continue to mound the debris of their subterranean creations on the surface of my field.  However, these mounds are no longer heaps of malleable brown clay containing the lingering moisture of a long winter.  The heat of summer has wrung the soil dry.  My field is speckled by tan mounds of wisping dust, dug from earth hardened by months of unrelenting heat.

The sun scorches this field in its natural condition.  Agriculture fruit does not sprout from its soil since irrigation water is beyond the reach of even the most adventurous root.  The green along the ditch banks stands in sole defiance against the brown of August heat.  A canopy of green aligns the irrigation waste ditch running below this waterless field.  Trees have sprung up to the sky and their leaves remain green no matter the number of days whose temperatures eclipse the century mark.

English: Oasis near Ica in Peru (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The heat cannot brown the leaves of these trees.  These trees have sent out their roots beneath the source of sustaining water.  These trees have no reason to fear the bleakness of their surroundings because all that can been seen is not what is ensuring their life.

We all go through dry times.  We all will experience the spiritual bleakness of an August month.  The heat of circumstances can feel as if it were wringing dry the freshness of our soul.  As the spiritual drought comes on, we might have the tendency to panic.  We might become dejected and anxious.  We might allow our eyes to go in search of refreshment to stave off our parched sensibilities.

We have no need to fear when we trust in the Lord.  When we place our trust in the Lord, it is like roots sunk deep under a mighty river.  The refreshing living water that will sustain us through any scorching trial comes through the conduits of trust.  A Child of God can continue to be a productive oasis even in the bleakest of desert because they are not nourished by what is on the surface.  Their trust is in what is unseen.  Their assurance is in things hoped for.

I have walked through many a dry spell.  Those have been discouraging times that I have not enjoyed.  However, there have been lessons for me in each exposure to the intense heat life.

The most important lesson of these trials has been trust.  When I feel a drought coming on, my tendency has been to get anxious.  I don’t like the heat.  I don’t like the discomfort that I know is coming.  I love the freshness of a spiritual spring.  I relish the vitality that comes to me when my surroundings are drenching me with the water of encouragement and joy.  New growth and fruit comes naturally and easy in the spring of my soul.

I then have to put my trust in the promises of God.  Trust in God pumps His living water to a soul being wrung dry from the heat of a dry season.  That is why we are blessed.  We are blessed because through the power of a great and living God we can thrive through any barrenness.  We are blessed because we have a Father in heaven who gives us what we need, when we need it.  He is the one who sustains us when we feel like we are going to shrivel up and blow away.

We just need to continue to trust Him.

PRAYER: Lord, you know how much I dislike dry seasons.  However, I know that I need them.  I know that I need to learn how to trust you more.  I know that I don’t trust you like I should.  Help me to trust you more.  Thank you for all the blessings that flow from trusting in you.  You are so good to me.  You have sustained me through so many droughts.  I know that you will carry me through the dry seasons that are yet to come.  Thank you.  Help me to be fruitful in all seasons.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.   Amen.

“WALKING THE DITCH BANKS” – Mar. 9

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  John 4:10

“Jesus sad to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”   John 4:13-14

I live in a land of insatiable thirst.  It is a place marked by a strange geometric patchwork of green in among sprawling expanses of the brown and gray.   It is a land of great potential that lacks an essential element to sustain a fruitful existence.  The fruitlessness of this unaltered environment attests to the fact that this essential element does not naturally occur here.  It has to be imported.

I live in a desert.

Water is king in the desert.  Water is essential for a fruitful existence.

The land that I call home is known for its production of potatoes and many other agriculture products but all of it is due to the importation of water.  This land truly has been reclaimed through the construction of a labyrinth of irrigation systems.  Water flows from behind dams, through large canals, diverted into laterals, measured into ditches, to flow onto the desert soil through sprinklers or corrugates.  If one were to remove this imported water, valuable farmland would soon revert back to unproductive desert.

This makes water king. There are times in the growing season when the normal rushing flow of irrigation water will slow to a trickle.  This is disconcerting for a diligent farmer.  He will immediately begin the investigatory task of “walking the ditch” to discover where this essential element has gone.  He may meander along irregular grassy banks; he may move rapidly along concrete channels; he may stand befuddled at diversion structures; he may have to climb into the mountains and investigate the source.

As long as there is water to be had, a farmer with water rights will always get his water.  It may come to him in a different channel.  It may flow to him from an unfamiliar diversion box.  It may be restored after repairing a breach.  A good farmer will be relentless in the search of his water because there is no farming in the desert.

The natural condition of every man is a desert. 

Our natural existence is that of insatiable thirst.  People will spend their entire lives in search of that which will satisfy their thirst.  No matter what they try, this insatiable thirst will return.

The greatest reclamation project ever completed is reclaiming the fruitless soil of sinful human hearts.

The essential element needed to forever alter the condition of man is water – living water. This living water has to be imported.  This living water flows to us through the cross of Christ.  It is the living water of Christ and only this living water that will satisfy our insatiable thirst.  Everyone in the desert will die because they will not find the eternal life-giving water of Christ in any place other than the cross.  Every person who comes to the cross is given this free gift of living water and they will never thirst again because they have water rights; rights as children of God, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, to the never-ending living water that bubbles up to eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, do you feel like you’re in a desert?

A good farmer will always seek out why his water has flowed to a trickle.  Jesus said that the living water that He gives us will never run out.  That is a promise.  We can claim rights to God’s promises as His children.  We have rights to the living water of God.  He is the one who gave them to us.  He intends for us to have them.

Maybe, it is time to walk the ditch bank and investigate why you are feeling parched. 

Maybe, the cares of this world have grown into your ditch and clogged the flow.  It might be time for spiritual cleaning and repentance and turning once again with all of your heart to your Savior.

Maybe, neglect has resulted in cracks and leaks in your concrete ditch.  It might be time to get back to diligence and consistency of the spiritual disciplines.

Maybe, your water is being diverted from a new ditch.  It might be time for patience and trusting in the Lord that His water is coming.

Maybe, you are in the off-season.  It might be that you are in a winter. “It is foolish to plant corn in January. It’s foolish to transplant shrubs in July.  Each season has its suitable tasks, its required duties, its necessary constraints.” (Mark Buchanan, Spiritual Rhythm, p.29)  You may be in the bleakness of a winter season when God’s presence seems to have slowed to a trickle.  It might be time to hunker-down to the winter tasks of prayer, pruning, and waiting, not because you feel like it but because your hope is not in this world.  It might be time to be reminded that you are not made for this world. (Mark Buchanan, Spiritual Rhythm, Ch.2)

Maybe, you need to climb the mountain and make sure that you are being supplied from the true origin of living water.  It might be time to examine yourself, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourself. (2 Cor. 13:5)  Jesus told us in Matthew 7:21-23 that there will be many who come to Him on that day and claim rights that they never had.  There will be many people on that day who will have made confessions of faith, they will have called Jesus, “Lord,”  but He will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”  You must examine yourself and make sure that you have the rights to God’s promises.  You must be a child of God to receive the living water.  You must truly repent, receive Christ’s atoning sacrifice for your sin, and be born again as a child of God.

We have been promised the gift of living water.  This water will never run out.  It will become in us a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Let’s go get our water, drink deeply, and be amazed at the fruitfulness that the Spirit can produce in reclaimed hearts such as ours.

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for allowing me to even know the free gift of your Son.  Thank you for giving me living water.  Thank you for saving me from the desert of my own soul.  Lord, flow into me.  I want all that you will give me in whatever form and from whatever avenue that You have chosen for me.  You are so good to me.  Teach me how to drink deeply of your living water.  Thank you for making it so that I will never thirst again.     Amen