Readings:
Isaiah 58:9b-end;
Psalm 103:1-8;
Hebrews 12:18-end;
Luke 13:10-17

Collect:
Lord of heaven and earth
as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer,
give us patience and courage never to lose hope,
but always to bring our prayers before you,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection - In the Time of Drought

One of the major items dominating the news at the moment is drought. According to provisional statistic from the Met Office, July 2022 was the driest July for England since 1935, and the driest July on record for East Anglia, southeast and southern England. It resulted into unprecedented heatwave that sent temperatures in the UK to above 40c for the first time on record. Scorched earth and dried reservoirs are more commonly associated with hotter climes in different part of the world, but as parts of the United Kingdom turn increasing brown and water reservoirs are drying up, water companies have started to introduce hosepipe ban to reduce conserve water usage.

The Royal Meteorological Society droughts are not very easy to define. A drought is not just a lack of water for a period. In fact, there are a whole range of drought including; agricultural (farming), meteorological (weather), hydrological (surface water) and socio-economic (ones which affect humans). However, drought can be generally defined as an event of prolonged shortages in the water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water.

When we reflect on our Christian journey in the light of the current drought circumstance, we will realise that we all experience moments of spiritual drought as we journey through life. The periods of spiritual droughts are often characterised with the feeling of God being distant, when we are struggling spiritually, when we don’t see God working, when the burden of life becomes incredibly heavy and we therefore feel weighed down, discouraged or even feel abandoned by God. What then should we do when we find ourselves in the season of drought?

The first thing we must realise is that spiritual dryness is normal. When we search through the pages of the bible, we will realise that men and women of faith passed through moments of spiritual dryness when doing what God asked them to do. Despite his victory over the Prophets of baal, Elijah ran for his life and because spiritually weary because Jezebel was after him in 1Kings 19:1-18. Moses knew the luxuries of Egyptian royalty for 40 years, but God had to send him to the desert for another 40 years to break him. In Moses’ desert, God revealed the “I AM” to him.

Peter faced his own drought. After he denied Jesus three times, we find him discouraged and returning to his trade that Jesus called him out of. Though it was a self-inflicted, spiritual drought (John 21), God was at work for Peter’s good (Romans 8:28). Even Jesus experienced deserts and knew drought. After His baptism, He experienced 40 days of hunger and thirst and was tempted by the Devil (Matthew 4). From the cross, Jesus cried out, “…My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). We can see clearly that while God doesn’t prohibit the seasons of spiritual dryness, we must be very careful that we do not stay there. 

Secondly, we must realise that droughts are necessary for our spiritual growth as it enables us to be more deeply rooted and firmly planted in Christ. For example, one of the ways trees respond to prolonged drought is known as root turnover when old roots are shed and new roots are constructed with the new root being able to take up water more efficiently at a deeper level of the soil. Hence, in a similar way to trees, spiritual drought should cause us to dig deep and draw water from Christ our living spring. 

Thirdly, spiritual dryness is not limited to us as individuals, but there may also be seasons of corporate spiritual dryness as a church. When we look at the congregations in our Partnership at the moment, we will realise that we are perhaps going through a dry patch at the moment, we are struggling with our finance, church attendance in our Partnership is down which can sometimes be discouraging. But we must remember that it is an opportunity for us to dig deep into the things that matter for the kingdom of God.

In conclusion, the root cause of drought is prolonged absence or reduced access to water. For Christians, Jesus is the source of living water that never runs out. He said: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7: 37-38). When we come to Him, He will give us to drink from the living water and we will never be thirsty again. 

Let us therefore stay connected to him especially in our period of spiritual drought. 

Adedayo Adebiyi