Seasons of Drought

Jesus answered.."whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14 (NIV)

The summer of 1988 will always be remembered by my family as the year of the drought. Everyone in our area of western Pennsylvania was affected by the extremely dry conditions either directly or indirectly - especially the farmers.

Earlier in the spring, we had a lot of rain on our farm. But the summer months brought little to no rain. When the rain stopped, so did the growth of our corn crop. The green corn stalks and leaves soon started to shrivel and dry up. We knew that we wouldn't have a corn crop at all unless we got some rain soon so we prayed and asked God for some relief from the drought.

God heard those prayers and answered them with what we called a little miracle. One day in the middle of June we were blessed with an abundant rain shower - a good soaking rain for about twenty minutes that saved our corn crop! Why we called it a miracle was because we learned that it only rained on our farm that day. None of the neighboring farms reported receiving any rain that day at all.

That fall at harvest time we had much to be thankful for. Although the corn crop was not as plentiful as previous years, what we harvested was enough to feed our cows through the winter months along with the abundant hay crop we had been able to harvest. We thanked God for His provision and for allowing our farm to survive the difficult year.

Since 1988 there have been many other dry summers. Each time we are without rain, I am reminded of how our lives can become dry or parched when we allow the drought conditions of life to weigh us down. Maybe you're in the middle of some drought conditions right now such as financial burdens, health issues, or broken relationships. Give them all to Jesus - the Living Water - and thirst no more.

Thank you, God that you are always with me - even during the times of drought in life. May I find encouragement and refreshment in the Living Water daily as I pray and read your Word.

Beth Wehr