Can you recall those first days of your spiritual birth; those moments and days when your heart was awakened by Jesus? The Word was alive and near, worship was thrilling, prayer was like breathing. Do you sometimes look back to some former day and say, "I so deeply long to return to those days!" Or, "Lord bring those days again!" This is the cry of the psalmist and the congregation of saints who neared Jerusalem each year and sang the Songs of Zion (the Psalms of Ascent). Today's text reaches into the depths of our longing to experience again or anew the times of refreshing. As the text states, "Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongues with singing." And in response to these emotions the cry continues, "Turn again our captivity, O Lord."
Certainly the Lord could bring them and us again into that beautiful state of spiritual bliss, but the text turns to a more recognizable model of normal spiritual life. It is the place of sowing, watering, weeding, and finally harvesting that the Lord has provided as a means of spiritual maintenance. And these take patience and hope. Looking back will only take our eyes off the hope of the harvest and distract us from the work of the ministry. Yet, through faithful labor we too will know the response of the effort. "He that goeth forth and weapeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bearing sheaves with him." This is the secret of the Kingdom of God. It is not the sudden rush of the rain shower that most effectively waters the ground, but the steady falling of raindrops over time.
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January 1, 2012 | John Bayles | Go Into All The World: Looking for Showers, Content with Raindrops (Psalms 126:1-6)
