There isn’t a more barren landscape than the desert, and Death Valley in California is no exception. The National Park Service website tells us that Death Valley is the “Hottest, Driest and Lowest National Park.” The NPS adds, “In this below-sea-level basin [-282.2 feet], steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley a land of extremes.”
So, why am I talking about it? Because earlier this year, Death Valley experienced a rare phenomenon called a “super bloom,” which is caused by a combination of greater-than-average rainfall and temperatures that are more moderate than normal. This resulted in ephemeral (short-lived) native flowers blossoming in spectacular fashion.
If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you have probably had a desert experience or two. I’ve been there. Your spiritual life seems dry, and there is no evidence of fruit in your life. Everything seems lifeless. As I contemplated this, the words to “Desert Song” by the band Hillsong Worship came to mind:
This is my prayer in the desert
When all that’s within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides.
Therein lies the key for us — “My God is the God who provides.” God’s desire is not for us to be dry and barren but to bring forth spiritual fruit. Jesus addressed the issue of thirst in John 7:37-39 (ESV):
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
While the Spirit never leaves us or forsakes us, there are times when we just aren’t feeling it. Those are the times when we need to ask God to come and refresh us with a renewed sense of His presence.
Jeremiah exhorted the Jewish people to call for God’s refreshing presence. “Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest” (Jeremiah 5:24). To “fear God” is to reverence Him, and He wants to send His rain in the season of our dryness that there might be a harvest of spiritual fruitfulness in our lives.
Scripture has abundant references to the need for spiritual refreshment. “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3). “Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field” (Zechariah 10:1).
Ephesians 3:20 tells us God does “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,” so call to Him in your desert season and see if He doesn’t create in your life a “super bloom” season of refreshment.
What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!
