A few nights ago, I awoke to the sound of rain. In the middle of July, after 103 degree weather, I heard the sound of rain and rejoiced! I rejoiced because I immediately thought “relief”. Relief from the hot weather and relief from our terrible drought.

The Central Valley, which is rich with farmland and provides produce for so many people, is in a severe drought. This drought isn’t just going to affect us this season, but in seasons to come, affecting the crops that we produce now and in a few years from now. So I was lying there listening to the rain, feeling relieved and grateful. I was thinking this rain would nourish the land and now the severity of famine won’t be so bad!

Until I realized, the damage has already been done. The amount of rain we need to truly nourish the land is far beyond the 2 minutes of rain we got in mid-July. It’s too late. There hasn’t been enough rainfall this year to nourish our land, and this drought is going to have residual effects.

Here’s a picture of a water reservoir in 2011

Here’s a picture of the same water reservoir in 2014

*Photos from californiawaterblog.com

I was excited over a few minutes of rainfall in the middle of summer, thinking this would fix the months of drought we had in the past year, and would fix the dry land that would be effected in the seasons to come. When in reality, those few drops wouldn’t come close to fixing the damage that’s already been done. I realized while lying in bed in the middle of the night this is such a picture of our spiritual lives.

When we don’t nourish ourselves with Living Water, we are trying to bear fruit from dry land. We can’t go days, months, years without this constant drip of rain for our souls, and expect to produce good fruit.

And I see the results. So many of us women are living in a place of dry land. We are plagued with

Depression
Anxiety
Fear
Worry
Discontentment
Pride
Cynicism
Guilt
Shame
Anger
Bitterness
Loneliness
Hopelessness

Rather than fruit of the Spirit
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control

The reality is, we are famished. Reading the bible is something we just don’t have time for, or better said, just don’t make time for. We’re too busy running to keep up with our lives, and it’s costing us dearly. We don’t read because we’re self-sufficient. We can get through most of our lives without the help of God, so we do. We don’t really have to rely on Him for much because our refrigerators are full and cable TV is entertaining. We don’t drink water because diet-coke tastes better and gives us a little boost of caffeine to get through the day.

And this was such a picture for me of my soul when I don’t regularly fill up with God. I can’t expect to have joy when I have starved myself spiritually. I won’t bear good fruit of joy and kindness, when I haven’t been connected to the Vine. I won’t be able to trust God in this season, or in seasons to come because my roots are dry.

I just wonder, if this would be a picture of your spiritual life too?

I asked the question on Facebook last week, and it turns out, many of us are in this same place.

So starting today, I want you to join me in saying:

Enough.

No more drought.
No more running to keep up with my life.
No more self-sufficiency.
No more famine.

This week, I’m going to spend some time walking through how and why to read the bible and then, starting in August, on this blog, we’ll go through the book of Philippians together.

Many of us try to “get healthy” on our own, so I say, let’s do this together.

If you want to join me, sign up for the email list. I’ll post some helpful tips on how to read daily and don’t want you to miss anything!

I don’t know about you, but I want my life to bear the fruit of the Spirit not the fruit of a dry, barren wasteland. I can’t do this alone, I need God and I need you to walk through this with me.

Will you join me?

Looking forward to these next few weeks together!

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