Praying for Rain

Georgia’s governor has reverted to a spiritual solution to the state’s drought by publicly praying for rain. Governor Sonny Purdue led a crowd of several hundred in prayer outside the state Capitol saying, "We’ve come together here simply for one reason only: to very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm … It’s time to appeal to Him who can and will make a difference." In direct prayer to Almighty, Purdue pled, "God, we need you. We need rain."

With very few days left in the water supply and inter-state tension over common dwindling water, Governor Purdue’s prayers evoked the wrath of the Atlanta Freethought Society, which protested a religious observance on state property.

Little actual precipitation is expected in the short run, but time will tell whether God answered this unusual supplication. Praying for various needs is a standard procedure of overstressed people, but most of them have no prayer standing whatever with God until they repent and submit to Him through Jesus Christ in a prayer for personal salvation as found in Luke 18:13: "God, be merciful to me the sinner."

General prayer is not an automatic verbal Aladdin’s Lamp. God may answer any prayer, but He has no obligation outside Christ’s notable exclusivity of prayer in His Name. "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." (John 14:13-14) If the governor is born again and prays within this prayer legacy, there’s rain in his future.

The Bible records uniquely altered weather patterns. James 5:17-18 recalls, "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit."

Israel’s typical rainfall patterns were the two-fold early and latter rains so often mentioned in the Bible. "And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil." (Deuteronomy 11:13-15) Early rains softened the soil for planting, and latter rains fell to give maturing crops a final growth spurt.

Abnormal weather patterns reflected spiritual disorder and brought drought and crop failure. Repentant intercession restored proper rainfall as found in II Chronicles 7:13-15. "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

If Governor Perdue’s praying is repentant intercession, his action is surely a step in the right direction.

Dave Virkler