Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Drinking in the Rain.

Hebrews 6v7 “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.”  (NIV)

Just a little pondering on this verse using the image of farming for our spiritual lives …

Firstly, “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it”:

• The context (v4-6) indicates that the “land” symbolises you and I and the “rain” is the heavenly gift of God’s forgiveness, His Word and the Holy Spirit
• This rain is often falling. It is not withheld, but is available frequently.
• The issue is not the “rain”, but whether the land is hardened in any way and is not able to “drink” it in.
• How is the “land” of my heart? Am I soft and ready to receive the “rain” of God?

Secondly, “and produces a crop useful to those to whom it is farmed”:

• To produce a crop requires the soil to not only drink the rain, but also be fertile.
• Is my heart fertile to produce a crop? (consider also the parable of the sower in Mark 4v1-20)
• It is the landowner who typically receives the crop from the labourers farming the land.
• Who is my “landowner”? Who is the crop of my life most useful to?

Thirdly, “receives the blessing of God”

• There is a sense in which the land has already received God’s blessing in the rain and the fertile nature of the soil.
• But God is one who adds blessing to blessing. (See also Matthew 13v12, “Whoever has will be given more” ) Blessing is not something me manufacture, but is the gift of God.

Lord, all we have is yours; may we be fertile, drink deep and receive your blessing.

With love and blessing,

Roland