“…in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Galatians 6:9b [KJV]
Picture credit: Sarah, Flinders Ranges
Some of my favourite memories are family holidays spent visiting relatives in rural South Australia. December is wheat harvest month; we’d drive at crawling pace on roads behind oversized farm equipment, watch grain being unloaded at silos, and sometimes pull to the side of the road to see a harvester cutting through the paddocks of ripe wheat.
But one year, 2007 I think it was, we saw none of those things. The paddocks were covered in golden sand, not grain. My uncles, instead of being out working, were sitting on my great aunt’s sofa, drinking mugs of tea. “I didn’t sow this year,” one of them said, “I asked the Lord if I should, and He said no.” He added quietly, “Those who sowed lost it all. None of us will have a harvest this year, but I have seed to sow next year, Lord willing.”
In the cities, water restrictions were strictly enforced; we could only water the garden at certain times and days, public fountains were switched off, car washes banned, and (most memorable of all) the government handed out blue plastic timers, as part of a campaign to encourage shorter showers and reduce water waste. But it wasn’t until I saw my uncles sitting idle on a workday, that I understood the impact of what became known as the Millennial Drought, spanning eight years between 2001 and 2009.
This year, South Australia is experiencing drought again. Even though some of us in cities and other regions might feel distant from the present drought, it’s a good metaphor to describe the periods of spiritual dryness we all experience in our Christian lives. One preacher described spiritual drought as, “the retraction of the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit within”, that is, those times when we don’t sense the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We have humbly searched our hearts and confessed our sins, but God still seems distant. Our labours and faithfulness bear little or no obvious fruit. Temptations attack from all quarters. Prayers seemingly aren’t being answered. The showers of God’s blessing seem to have dried up.
Yet verses such as Galatians 6:9b state promises such as, “In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” If God promises blessing, then why do we encounter spiritual droughts? How do we respond rightly to them?
Spiritual droughts are reality. They happen to all Christians. Sometimes, drought seasons are self-inflicted. Israel is told in Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” If our sin has caused actual loss of fellowship with God, then we need to confess our sin like King David did in Psalm 51:1-4, to restore our relationship with God (1 John 1:9). However, spiritual droughts may occur when we are faithfully obeying the Lord. Several Bible accounts of physical droughts and famines illustrate this point. Exodus 15:22-27 records that Israel (for once!) were obediently following God’s leading. Yet after travelling for three days through the wilderness, and desperate for water, they arrived at Marah, a place where the waters were contaminated and undrinkable. The second instance is recorded in 2 Samuel 21, where Israel under King David encountered three years of severe famine. Deeply concerned, David humbled himself and enquired of the Lord, who answered, “It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites” (2 Samuel 21:1b). Saul had been killed years earlier, and godly David now had the throne, but the famine was pre-ordained judgement for Saul’s betrayal of the promise Joshua had made to the Gibeonites centuries earlier (Joshua 9). In each of those instances, people currently obeying the Lord encountered droughts and needs through no fault of their own. Similarly, Job went through severe spiritual drought, despite the scriptures describing him as a “perfect and upright man, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1). Job’s “grief was very great” (Job 2:13), his friends and wife were terrible comforters, but Job endured 38 chapters (some of them very long ones) before the Lord finally answered him. Scripture indicates some weeks passed (see Job 2:13) between Job’s losses and God’s answer. Those weeks of God’s ‘silence’ would have felt very long indeed. Like a wise farmer who factors the risk of physical droughts into his long-term plans, we too should expect to encounter spiritually dry seasons.
Spiritual droughts are necessary. We all prefer “showers of blessing” and that deep and precious awareness of the Lord’s presence and leading in our lives. But the Lord allows dry seasons for three key reasons. Firstly, spiritual droughts strengthen our faith. It’s easy to believe God when we see His working and blessing. It’s hard to trust Him when there is no evidence of harvest. It’s hard to keep faithfully obeying when you are waiting (and waiting some more) for an answer to prayer, or when God seems distant, or when few people seem interested in the gospel. God allows these situations to test us. In Deuteronomy 8:2, Moses tells Israel, as they prepare to enter the promised land, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” The Psalmist declares, “For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried” (Psalm 66:10). God values our faithfulness in the drought seasons, with the Lord Jesus telling His disciple, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29b). Secondly, spiritual droughts remind us that God, not us, is in control. A physical drought reminds a farmer to trust the “LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season” (Jeremiah 5:24b). A spiritual drought not of our own making, reminds us that God’s ways are beyond our comprehension. As Romans 11:34 says, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?”. We convince ourselves that God is most glorified in abundant harvests and great works. But God determines how he will be glorified. He is glorified every time a Christian obeys God, regardless of their feelings and circumstances. As Paul reminds us, “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name,” (Hebrews 6:10a). Thirdly, spiritual droughts help us seek God and better appreciate His blessings. David said, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” (Psalm 42:1). A farmer who has lived through severe drought learns to value the abundant years. Similarly, spiritual droughts help us to recognise and give thanks for the Lord’s blessing when it does come. And it will come.
Spiritual droughts are temporary. All physical droughts are temporary, because of the promise the Lord made to Noah in Genesis 8:22: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Spiritual droughts also have end points. If our sin caused actual estrangement from God, then this ends when we confess and forsake our sin (1 John 1:9). Job’s spiritual drought ended when the Lord answered him. Israel’s need for drinking water was satisfied when God worked a miracle to make the waters of Marah sweet, and then led them to Elim, “where were twelve wells of water,” (Exodus 15:27a). In John 15:5a, Jesus says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit”. It's a clear promise. If we are faithful, we will bear fruit. We don’t always know what the fruit will look like, or when it will come, but the Lord Himself guarantees it. If we can’t see God’s working now, we will in eternity. In Revelation 22:12, the last chapter of the Bible, Christ promises, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
If you are in a spiritually dry season, keep trusting God. These seasons happen to all Christians. They are part of God’s working in our lives, and are always temporary. Keep faithfully sowing where the Lord has placed you, and remember His promise, “in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
PS. To all the farming folk experiencing drought right now, we’re praying for you too.
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