Those of us here in California LOVE hearing that this might be an “El Nino” year ahead…that rain is coming!!  This drought has been crazy, right?!  Like so many others, each day I carry out my bucket of collected shower water (that I collected from when I was waiting for the water to get warm), and I water my plants with it.  There have been “army showers” and many other water reductions over here…and my skin feels so dry…I’m constantly moisturizing!!  Ugh!  All of our lawns are brown…sort of hanging onto life by a thread so they might hopefully be revived once this drought is over!  It’s awful!!

Rain…  We need lot’s of rain!  But there are two words that are giving us all a little hope over here… “El Nino”.  🙂  Rain is coming!

Just like this California drought…my life has been full of dry seasons too!  I can think back on many times where I just felt like I was dragging myself through a desert, and nothing that I was praying for was happening!  In fact, things felt like they were getting worse!!  I just couldn’t see anything changing for the better!  Like Elijah in the Old Testament, I was praying for relief from the drought, and God was saying, “Hang on…there’s a rain cloud up ahead that you just can’t see yet…trust Me, Tami…don’t lose faith, and you will experience my incredibly refreshing rain.” An “El Nino” for the soul (for Elijah’s story you can read 1 Kings 18)!  🙂

I will be the first to admit, however, that hanging on is hard.  For me, it usually involves agonizing waiting, moments of tears, frustration, trusting God when I don’t see any change…and believing when so much around me says to just give up. But hanging on is the key to surviving in the desert…I think even Bear Grylls would agree with that! 😉 So hang on I must!!

And then it comes…finally! It’s so refreshing…and it’s worth every painful minute of waiting in the desert, right?!  Answered prayers suddenly abound!  Everything seems to cry out about God’s perfect timing! I’m even left thanking Him for that desert experience because it brought me closer to Him and made my heart stronger!!  It seems He DID have a plan, after all (even though it was different than mine)!!  🙂  He always brings promised rain…sometimes it just requires believing Him for it before I can yet see it!

“Ask the Lord for rain in the spring, for He makes the storm clouds.  And He will send showers of rain…”  Zechariah 10:1

Today I’m believing for God to shower down His refreshing rain again, I’m asking Him for the strength to hang on in the desert…and I’m already feeling excited to see those things come to pass that I’ve been praying and believing for.  Rain is coming! 🙂