Rain can be awfully inconvenient.
Outdoor activities planned months in advance can be ruined, or at least need to be rearranged, when an unforeseen rainstorm blows in. Grocery shopping becomes a big mess when we have to cart our bags in and out in the rain. Rain makes roads slick, creating driving hazards.
Rain can also be gloomy when we haven’t seen the sun for days.
One of my worst rain experiences came when I was driving home alone. The rain fell so heavily, my windshield wipers couldn’t keep up. I literally could not see anything around me except the faint glow of other headlights. I somehow made it to the parking lot of a convenience store and waited til the showers abated, hoping no one would run into me.
And then there are thunderstorms with the potential to down power lines, send limbs crashing from trees, or strike lightning.
Yet, we need rain.
Rain softens the ground, making it easier to plant seeds. Then those seeds transform into flowers or food with more rain and sunshine.
Rain relieves the scorching heat of summer.
Rain provides water to drink and replenishes water tables for future needs.
Rain washed impurities out of the air.
F. B. Meyer wrote:
We all love the sunshine, but the Arabs have a proverb that ‘all sunshine makes the desert’; and it is a matter for common observation that the graces of Christian living are more often apparent in the case of those who have passed through great tribulation. God desires to get as rich crops as possible from the soil of our natures. There are certain plants of the Christian life, such as meekness, gentleness, kindness, humility, which cannot come to perfection if the sun of prosperity always shines. (1)
That’s true, isn’t it?
Just as I don’t like rain to interrupt my plans or make my tasks harder, I don’t like when trials and problems come up. They’re hard, painful, and sometimes costly. They take time and thought and energy from things I’d rather do.
But they have a good purpose.
When life is going well, we can get complacent. People who get everything they want and have everything just the way they like it sometimes start to feel entitled.
Though we know we need God’s grace and help in every circumstance, we feel our need of Him more during trials.
Trials soften us by humbling us. They show us our lack of strength and our need for His. They help us depend on Him more.
Trials help us grow. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
Trials help us to be grateful for what we have.
Trials can help wash impurities out as we search our hearts and confess wrong thoughts, deeds, and attitudes to God. Trials don’t always come because of sin, but when they do, they have a cleansing effect.
Trials point us to those unseen resources I mentioned last week. Hidden water tables of grace sustain us during dry periods.
God’s Word refreshes us with His promises:
And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing (Ezekiel 34:26).
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you (Hosea 10:12).
Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth (Hosea 6:3).
He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17b).
One of my favorite childhood memories involves rain. My mom let us put on our bathing suits to go outside and play in a mild rain shower. I don’t know what time of year it was, but it had to have been during warm enough weather to get wet outside. Perhaps the rain was cooling on a hot summer’s day.
There was no thought of mess or inconvenience or disrupted plans. Instead, there was pure joy at the opportunity to do something so different and refreshing.
I can’t honestly say I dance for joy when trials come. But I am trying to learn to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 3:2-4). God has good purposes in trials and sends them in love and faithfulness.
Rain can be inconvenient, but also refreshing. All sunshine, as the saying goes, makes a desert. God keeps us from desert hardness and barrenness by sending trials our way. As William Cowper says in his hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way“:
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.
(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)
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(1) This quote comes from Our Daily Homily by F. B. Meyer. I’ve not read this book, but I have seen the quote in Warren Wiersbe’s book Be Satisfied as well as other places.
Stray Thoughts 
Rain gives us time to pause and reflect. I don’t want bad storms or floods. But, I do enjoy a rainy day that seems to make everyone slow down. Have a blessed week! 🙂
I enjoy when the rain gives relief from the heat–especially if I don’t have to run errands in it. 🙂
We do need both the sunshine and rain, and we recognize this easily when we consider our gardens and farms and the physical world. I have lots of memories of sitting on our covered front porch and watching gentle rain, and watching storms roll in. Perhaps if I remember that perspective – I know the moisture and the nutrients are needed in my life, and I know I’m safe within God’s shelter – I can face the storms of life with a better and more hopeful attitude.
That’s my hope as well, Kym. My first response is the face of trials is usually dread and prayer to be delivered as soon as possible. But I try to remember God has a reason for them and then lean all the more on Him.
I can verify the validity of your title from my walk around the garden today — it’s parched, like a desert, and too big to water effectively 😦 Definitely needs rain! In my life — sadly I’m not as eager for the rain, but you raise excellent points about why we all need rain. Last night a non-Christian friend emailed me, telling about some trials in her life and asking “Why would God do this to me?” Hard to know how to respond to someone asking that who’s not a believer. I like your point that desert soil is dry and hard — “rain” helps us prevent that in our lives and characters.
One thought for your friend–sometimes trials happen just because we live in a fallen world, but perhaps one reason God is allowing these things is to turn her heart to Him. Sometimes we don’t realize our need of Him til things happen that are too big for us.
Thank you for your insights and analogies. I found your blog just a couple of months ago through, I think, a link party. The last 3 years my life and my family’s lives have seen many “thunderstorms,” “flooding,” and what at times to me feels like “a tsunami.” I am doing my best to trust and allow God to do His will. I have been able to see and be grateful for the many blessings found along the way. Your posts have helped me immensely in these trials, a blessing I am thankful for.
Thanks so much for sharing, Ruth. I’m so sorry for all your family has been going through. I think of Job as someone flooded with trials. They can be overwhelming. I’m glad you’ve been able to trust the Lord through them and have seen His blessings.
I look forward to rain, until it rains for days and days. Then I look forward to no rain. But we need both to grow and then rest. Great post.
Thanks, Melanie. 🙂 There’s a line from the song “The Perfect Wisdom of Our God” by Start Townend that I wish I had thought about when I wrote this post:
And teach me humbly to receive
The sun and rain of Your sovereignty.
Each strand of sorrow has a place
Within this tapestry of grace;
So through the trials I choose to say:
“Your perfect will in Your perfect way.”
Thanks for sharing your wise and beautiful thoughts, Barbara.
It just rained today where I am in equatorial Singapore, and it was a strong but brief thunderstorm. So apt to read your post after I experienced the cleansing of impurities in the dusty and humid air, and the washing clean of so much.
Indeed, I pray that God’s storms soften my heart and make it good ground for his Word to be planted, take root and bear fruit..
Thanks so much, Lyn. I appreciate your sharing. My prayer is the same. Usually my first thought in any trial is to get out of it as soon as possible. But I need to remind myself of these truths that God has a purpose in them and promised to be with us and help us through them.
I love this post, Barbara. I’ve been thinking about rain a lot lately. The summer has been dry for the most part, so every drop of rain causes me to thank God for it. If only I could have a similar mindset with the rain of life. Thank you for this wonderful reminder today.
Thanks so much, Ashley. I need to be more welcoming of the rain of life, too, and to trust God’s purposes in it.
Oh so very true! Most of the time I try not to mind gloomy, rainy days since it does help the flowers bloom and grow but I detest the really bad storms that we sometimes get.
I get really tense in thunderstorms. One house we used to live in would often lose power in a thunderstorm, even though our power lines were underground.
This post hit home pretty hard, Barbara! I normally love rain and rainy days. I bemoan long stretches without it. Then it rains six inches in a few days and our basement floods on the 4th of July. Inconvenient, to say the least. Some might even call it a trial. And yet, I actually have found things to be thankful for in the midst of the soaked carpet pad and sore muscles, and I’m glad for that!
I’m sorry about the basement flooding. And on the 4th, no less! But I’m glad you’re finding blessings in it all and I hope the cleanup and repairs are going well.
When I wrote this post, I had not heard about Hurricane Beryl until I published it. I wondered if anyone thought it ironic that I wrote about the need for rain when some people were being flooded . . .
While I acknowledge the idea of rain as an inconvenience generally, having lived in a very dry climate, rain has an entirely different connotation!
But trials are trials. Appreciate this: God has good purposes in trials and sends them in love and faithfulness.
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What great reminders, Barbara!
There is so much truth in this post, Barbara. My late Dad always used to say that without the rain there are no flowers, which is true in so many ways. Thank you so much for sharing this encouraging post with Hearth and Soul.