During the months of June and July my husband and I help operate a youth camp. My job is to oversee the kitchen, which means Monday morning is grocery day! Usually I enjoy grocery day, even though it’s a big job, because it means I have 6 hours of blissful solitude! As a natural introvert, I treasure those moments of quiet-- even in a grocery store surrounded by people! The only thing that can ruin that is….rain. I love rain if I am sitting on the porch reading, not standing at my car loading 30 packages of hot dog buns and a million boxes of pudding mix! But, the groceries were not going to deliver themselves 25 minutes from town. So, off to the store I went last Monday, storm and all. On my way to town, the Lord used that rain to speak to my heart! 

Sometimes it rains big rains that make us want to curl up and hide from everything, or sometimes little rains that throw a wrench into our life plans. We all know that we have a big God who can do anything and if we are doing things the right way, we go straight to Him and ask Him to change or fix our storm. But the truth is, sometimes there isn’t a quick answer. Sometimes it even feels as though God has gone silent. We know He isn’t a heartless Father; but for more reasons than we can possibly know, sometimes the rain continues and no end seems to be in sight. 

So, what do we do? If the rain persists and God seems silent, what is the correct and biblical response? Anger? Never. Though Satan will surely make that emotion front and center. Doubt? Again, Satan’s darts are always there; he knows our weaknesses even better than we know ourselves. 

Those are the easy responses. Instead, try the hard one: work in the rain. Work for the Lord in spite of the storm in your life. Continue teaching that class when your child is wayward. Keep showing up for nursery when you want a baby so much it hurts to hold them. Keep doing what God has called you to do until He makes it abundantly clear that it’s time to stop.

Hebrews 10:35-36 says,

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. 

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

Don’t let the rain stop you from the important work God has called you to do. He is always faithful to give you the strength to fulfill His plan. Isaiah 40:31 reminds us that waiting on the Lord or serving Him will renew our strength. We will never need spiritual and physical strength more than in the midst of a storm. 

Sometimes the storm changes things. Sometimes we physically cannot do as much as we were once doing, but that never means there is nothing to do at all. Pack outreach flyers or print the bus forms when you can’t walk the route. Pray for the church services and your pastor when you are too ill to be there. Find something new to do for the Lord when the storm floods your life and everything has to change. Don’t stop working just because He allows a storm. The harvest you will reap will be far more abundant than you can imagine.

Determine to find  a way to work in the rain-- despite the storm-- you won’t regret it!