After this week I think it would be safe to say our land no longer  “thirsts for rain!” Here in this part of Texas we are used to times of drought and times of flood. We have experienced the consequences of both. We’ve seen the grass turn brown and trees turn brittle. We’ve also seen ponds overflow and dams nearly burst!

David was thinking of the land’s relationship to rain as he wrote Psalm 143. He used it to communicate his emotion in the midst of prayer.

“I lift my hands to you in prayer.
I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain.” – Psalm 143:6

On days like today it seems like the land cries out, “enough! I can’t hold any more!” But then so quickly winds change and soon the land goes from saturated to parched.

David cries out in prayer like the land that dies of dehydration. The need is so obvious, the signs are ever-present.

There are times when we go to God like a parched land as it thirsts for rain. When we have a need so great we can’t see the other side of it. When we are in the midst of an ever-present trial or temptation. Let us be a people who yearn to cry out to God, knowing He alone in the source of the water of life. Cry out, lift your hands to God on behalf of those who are parched.

Your friend in the Gospel,

Matt Ward