Spring rain

(photo by Shawn Newby)

"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)

For the past 2 days the rains have come down, in historic amounts, throughout the Nashville area. In fact, it is only May 3rd and this is officially the most rainfall this area has ever had in the month of May ~ ever! There are still people stranded in their homes, power outages, abandoned vehicles . . . everyone is astounded by the severity, intensity, and quickness with which this came. I'm beyond grateful that our house, Whitney and Shawn's house, and my sister's house were basically unaffected.

All of the churches in our town were cancelled (as per the Mayor of Franklin) because of the danger in road travel. For the first time in many, many, MANY years, I stayed home from church yesterday. I began the morning asking the Lord to help me have my own "house church" and speak to me in a new and fresh way in my solitude. Ask and you will receive . . .

God led me to this verse in Hosea 6. What an amazing passage this is! Here in May of 2010, I'm at a place right now where I am so aware of my desperation in wanting to know Him. Really know Him. To know His plans for my life. To know His heart ~ His goodness, mercy, justice, compassion. To just simply know HIM. Let us press on to know Him.

And then comes the amazing part of this verse. HE will come to US like these showers we've experienced. Flooding over us, covering us from head to toe. Watering us, helping us grow.

A favorite song of mine says it this way:

Holy Spirit rain down, rain down

Let Your power fall, let Your voice be heard

Come and change our hearts as we stand on Your word

Holy Spirit rain down

Bring on the rain.

(I want to add here that in this post, it was not my intention to take lightly all of the devastation that has happened, and continues to happen, in our area. There are many who have suffered catastrophic loss because of these storms. Please pray for God's healing, comforting touch in their lives. And pray for those of us who were more fortunate ~ that we would reach out and tangibly meet needs we see around us.)