Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” – 1 Kings 18:41
I looked up at the sky and a cool breeze ran across my bare shoulders. Every day, for about a week, I told my father, “we need rain”. My newfound allergies were making me more miserable than I wanted to admit. A rich green film of pollen stretched across my red car. Our grass was arid and lackluster. Everything, everywhere needed rain.
Getting into the car, I smelled rain and I saw gray, heavy clouds hanging low. “It’s coming; it’s coming soon I think.”
That night, with the deck doors open I heard the sound of rain rushing down against the leaves. The rain the earth, my car and I had been waiting for was finally here.
When we find the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings he, too, is waiting for rain. Perhaps, as you read these words you are waiting for rain. Maybe you’re waiting for a blessings to wash over your life. Maybe you are waiting for one of God’s promises to be fulfilled. Maybe you’re waiting for a job, a spiritual yoke to be broken in a loved one, or a past wound heal. Wherever you are, however you got there, know this, we are all (or have all) waited for the sound of rain.
The scene in 1 Kings 18 is riveting and exciting. Elijah is dramatically and elaborating proving to false prophets that God is the one true God. In order to do this, he has orchestrated, on top of a mountain, a show that requires these false prophets to call on their god. Their god is supposed to answer and create fire on the altar. But, of course, this doesn’t happen! This is when Elijah has his altar doused with water and he calls on God Almighty, the one true God, to consume the altar in fire, and He does!
Soon after the children of Israel were celebrating God’s victory, Elijah tells King Ahab that rain is coming. This is a poignant moment because Jerusalem had experienced a drought for three years!! Right after a powerful victory, Elijah hears rain in the distance.
Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”- 1 Kings 18:41
In the moment of anticipation, God sent faint sounds of rain from the distance, the perfect indication of the real rain headed Elijah’s way. As your read this, rest in your anticipation. Trust that the sound of rain you may be hearing right now is in no way small or insignificant. It could be the faint sound of your blessing rushing towards you.
As desperately as the northeast needed rain a few days ago, as longingly as the dry grounds of Jerusalem ached for moisture, as you long for God to send your soul waves of blessings. I promise He will. At the right now, in the right way, God will nourish your soul, but before the rain there is always the faint sound of rain. If you’re still and careful you will notice that the conditions of your life have shifted just enough and the blessing you are waiting will be whispering to you the way the sound of rain whispers to the Earth moments before it quenches the soil’s desperate soul.
#tobepraised
