A message inspired by sydney's winter rain

Sydney has been inundated with an unprecedented influx of rain this August. Normally Sydney’s winters are fairly dry so it has been quite the shock to have this unseasonable amount of rain. In reality it isn’t just unseasonable, it is altogether contrary to Sydney’s established climate pattern.

I’m tempted to bore you with climatology[1]classification theories from my university days, but I won’t, and I will merely remark that Sydney has been having a typical Mediterranean winter weather pattern this year.

I find this interesting because, for the first time, a verse referring to the winter rains in Israel finally can be understood experientially by the people living on the east coast of Australia.

“Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hos. 6:3 NIV).

The lesson in the regularity of the winter rains falling in Israel is that God is faithful. God’s promises are as sure as the inevitable appearance of the welcome winter rains in March and April following Israel's long dry summer.

Just like Israel counted on those rains coming to water their crops, so we count on Him to pour out life-giving water into our souls.

Jesus made this lesson to a woman drawing water at a well in Samaria. This was an unusual event because the Samaritans and Jews of the day were hostile to one another and it wasn’t customary for men to speak to women. That the woman was drawing water in the middle of the day gives us the idea that she was shunned by other women who normally drew water in groups in the cooler part of the day.

Jesus was alone when He asked the woman to draw Him some water to drink and she marvelled at Him asking her, a hated Samaritan, to fetch him some water.

Jesus replied:

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:10-13 NIV).

Even this woman who we were to learn had had 5 husbands and was co-habiting with a man she wasn’t married to, was singled out to be offered eternal life with Jesus. So God is faithful and can be counted on to provide for our physical needs. He is faithful to provide our spiritual needs as well.

A dry and arid land responds to the winter rain and becomes fruitful with crops that thrive in a summer drought and winter rain pattern of climate. People who are disregarded by society, who are dry and barren spiritually, will be transformed when the living water from the Holy Spirit waters their dry souls and brings them to life. No-one is excluded from this promise from Jesus.

Receiving that living water is as easy as asking Jesus for Him to satisfy your thirst. Simply ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life and ask Him to live in your heart in loving relationship. Tell Him that you long for Him to pour His Spirit into your heart to transform, restore, heal and bring about new beginnings. Ask Him for His living waters to wash away all doubts, worries and fears and to fill you with peace, joy and abundant life.

#kristinatrott #christian #christianblogger #worship #hosea6@kristina_trott #John4 #samaritanwoman #womanatthewell #livingwaters

[1] If you want to read more on this, check out the Köppen climate classification system https://www.bom.gov.au/climate/maps/averages/climate-classification/