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Remember the old nursery rhyme that went something like this — “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day?” How apt that this originated in England, home of seemingly endless consecutive dreary wet days which would have been the bane of many a poor child yearning to escape the confines of indoors to get outside and play. Meanwhile in Australia, as energetic youngsters, the three of us — one sister and one brother, spent considerable hours during winter inside at the kitchen table with our colouring-in books, Spirograph, Lego, and we also played board games. The distraction worked as it seemed like the rain would never stop to impatient minds who loved riding their bicycles and exploring our neighbourhood where many new homes were being built in East Burwood, Melbourne, Victoria during the late 1960s and 1970s. These housing sites were absolutely marvellous for our imaginations while engaging in pretend play. Thinking about those times I remember that only illness or the rain kept us at home. Researching the origins of this quaint children’s song reveals that it dates back to around the 16th century, with many variations of it since.
Wouldn’t it be rather nice to have rain just when it was needed and perhaps at night when we are asleep so that our daytime pursuits would not be interrupted or affected? Also not too much, as torrential rain can result in incredible damage through landslides, drownings, flooded homes, and can cause vehicles to become either partially or fully submerged, or even float away. Just moderate, plentiful and steady rain to ensure we all have enough to drink, wash with, use for our animals, growing crops, maintaining our gardens, fill and top up our swimming pools, and any other watery need one can think of. We are desperate for rain here in Australia as the drought has been ongoing for quite some time. Some say the weather patterns have cycles, however some of us know that God provides the rain and controls the weather for His good purpose. More on this later.
Witnessing first hand the terrible conditions through parts of the outback in South Australia we see the vast stretches of parched brown land with dead yellow grasses everywhere. Summer has really only just started here in the land down under, and we have been told that we are in for a very hot, dry season according to the experts in matters of meteorology. Apart from travelling each week around the driest state on the driest continent as we are known for, we also hear on the radio and see on T.V. in news reports and various interviews with farmers, and documentaries, just how widespread the drought has affected this fair country of ours. Alarmingly they report multiple suicides from the sheer despair of battling farmers crippled by debt to feed and water their stock and who see no hope for the future as they watch their livestock die or shoot to kill so that they are put out of their misery. This is truly soul destroying.
Many may ask why is this happening? Others may think it will all somehow naturally right itself and continue to wait for rain trusting that it will come, just like it has always done so beforehand. It’s got to come...right?! Some may even be unconcerned as they live in cities where a turn of the tap at whim confirms reassuringly that the hot or cold clear liquid runs forth readily and without restriction. Then there is a remnant (not many) of all the world’s population who are patient and active in prayer, eagerly waiting and watching for God’s blessing to rain down on this parched, cracked land which continues to threaten and destroy food crops and take the lives of land animals. Does God hear our prayers? Is He listening? Let’s read 1 Peter 3:10-12 “For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Therefore God indeed hears the prayers of the righteous, and conversely His ear is not inclined to those who do their own thing as in “I did it my way” which means God is not in their lives either at all or how He should be. Reading Proverbs 15:29 and John 9:21 confirms this.
Psalm 34:15 also mentions God’s ears are inclined or leaning towards the righteous to attentively listen to our requests. What this passage does not say is that God will grant every request known. Why? God is such a loving Father, He wants us to understand His will which is not always aligned or forthcoming to our will, nor in our time, but in His time according to His will. God’s ways are higher or better than our ways when we look at Isaiah 55:8-9 to read this scripture. Many things we do not understand but one thing we can...and that is, our wills are human, carnal, and certainly not perfect like God’s will is. So we wait patiently and continue on in prayer, remaining faithful in trust and hope for God desires to give us every good thing as stated in James 1:17.
Psalm 84:11-12 tells us “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!” Then we can read in Psalm 85:12 “Yes, the Lord will give what is good; and our land will yield its increase.'' For many years in our lifetime it has yielded beautifully under God’s generous provision and direction to produce good sustenance, but for how much longer? How much longer will our patient and longsuffering Father put up with the collective sins of this nation and other nations? Have we reached the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah yet? Are we living in times just like in the days of Noah?
These words above from Psalm 85 were said a long time ago in prayer by the sons of Korah so that the Lord will restore favour to the land. We also would do well to keep these words close to our hearts in prayer for the devastating bushfires that have been flaring wildly and burning vast tracts of densely wooded areas in the Blue Mountains and surrounding northern, western and southern parts of Sydney in Australia. Fires have been destroying homes and land for many weeks with no end in sight, not only in New South Wales (NSW) but now also in Queensland (QLD), Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), and other parts of our beloved country — indeed, only several kilometres away we have a fire burning close to where we live and the smell of smoke permeates the air on this Sabbath day. Thankfully it is at least 20 degrees cooler today from the dreaded week of heat where we experienced temperatures in the low to mid 40s Celsius. The cumulative effects on life of this extreme weather should never be underestimated.
In NSW winds have changed suddenly several times and fierce conditions continue to spread these fires which roar uncontrollably. Listening to many seasoned firies (Aussie informal language for a firefighter, first documented in the 1980s and a term of endearment or respect for one who risks their life to save others) fighting these fires, the message is clearly plain and simple while also consistently the same…”only rain will put these fires out”. These words are true and only God can extinguish these out-of-control bushfires. The thick smoke has affected many living in Sydney with people told to stay indoors, especially those with asthma. If going out people are wearing masks due to the very hazardous quality of the air. This has now started to affect the population of Melbourne as well. Incredibly, reports have also been made that the smoke can be seen a long way over the sea as far away as New Zealand!
Lives have been lost and loved ones are deeply mourning while trying to make sense of what is going on. Why me, why us, why now? It would be an understatement to say that the world is currently very busy, even frenzied to get everything done and driven to keep the pagan festival of christmas and certainly do not want anything to conflict or get in the way of their celebrations. Watching the news is heartbreaking and yet God patiently waits for His people to turn to Him in prayer, humbly repenting of their sins. Will they? Hopefully they will, otherwise history repeats as in scripture from Jeremiah 7:20 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched’”. Consider in Ezekiel 20:45-49 where he talks about the “Fire in the Forest in the South” which may cause one to reflect and meditate upon implications of this scripture on the southern lands which involve all south of Israel. Jeremiah 21:14 declares “But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,” says the Lord; “I will kindle a fire in its forest, and it shall devour all things around it”. Jeremiah has much to say prophetically from God in his messages to the people of his time, and now by extension to us. Reading Jeremiah 14 is truly eye opening and very sobering as it is a message about drought, parched land, absence of water to drink, and no rain in the land. This then led to famine which, in turn, leads to disease, then death.
Who Will Cry Out Aloud To Warn The People To Repent Of Their Sins?
Seems unlikely though that people existing in modern day times will repent while living more luxuriously than kings and queens of bygone eras as we have all the technological conveniences. Due to the severity of the bushfires and concerned for the plight of his fellow man, a well known sporting identity openly declared to his church congregation (which viewers saw a snippet of on TV as the service was filmed by Muslim outsiders who attended wanting to cause harm) that God is trying to get our attention for the sins committed in homosexuality, same sex marriage, abortion, and including all sins that are against the 10 commandments — and for people to repent of their sins. He was ridiculed despite his previously good relationships with fans and others who looked up to him and loved him. As a result of Mr. Folau speaking out, which was done appropriately, respectfully and maturely, the public have turned against this young man who once had an amazingly bright future. He has been “released” or terminated by his club from playing rugby thereby finishing his lucrative career. Reports were made of Folau earning $4 million annually because of his outstanding sporting talents and abilities.
The following paragraph has been quoted word for word and sourced from this link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Folau. “Israel Folau grew up as a Mormon, but moved to being an active member of the Assemblies of God Christian fellowship in 2011. His father, Eni Folau, is a pastor. Folau has credited his relationship with God as a reason for his athletic success in the NRL, AFL and rugby union. In a 2017 article for Players Voice, Folau wrote that he reads the Bible every day and that faith in Jesus Christ is the "cornerstone of every single thing in my life" and "I believe that it is a loving gesture to share passages from the Bible with others. I do it all the time when people ask me questions about my faith or things relating to their lives, whether that's in-person or on my social media accounts." Folau is nontrinitarian. He has been described as a fundamentalist Christian”.
This young man was very sincere, brave, and wonderful in my eyes. His words reminded me of previous words spoken by prophets such as Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Joel, Isaiah, Amos, Nahum, Obadiah, and others who prophesied that things would not go well unless the people turned from their wicked, sinful ways and repented. The Bible shows us that the people only wanted to hear smooth messages like “all will be well”. But not all was well and it also won’t be well for people living in these modern times either, unless they heed the warnings. All is definitely not well now! How many lives need to be lost, how much further disaster and destruction needs to occur before humans will listen and realise their Creator is trying to get their attention before we arrive at the point of no return? It remains to be seen.
A grim reminder indeed if the people of today will not heed the words of their beloved sporting star idol, then they will certainly not listen to anyone non-famous and chosen by God to live righteously according to His instructions. People do not possess the quality of discernment, instead only giving heed to signs and miracles...what they see with their eyes. Instead of going to God in prayer and giving due consideration upon Folau’s comments, the Prime Minister said on national T.V. during the news reports that Mr. Folau was insensitive and made cruel statements against others. Not so! Mr. Scott Morrison also considers himself a believer and a Christian but his actions do not match up, plus there is a political agenda at stake to uphold.
Anyone with wisdom could see that Israel Folau was genuinely loving in his delivery towards others while insensitivity accusations had no place; also the fact remains that his comments were true despite people not wanting to hear the truth. Interesting how those against God always hurl their misconceptions towards those speaking truth in love. Exactly how Satan behaves...accuses the brethren all the time, twists intents while calling good evil, and placing evil for good (Revelation 12:10; Isaiah 5:20). Isaiah 59:14-15 alerts us that whomever departs from evil will make themselves as prey and be ridiculed, scorned and mocked. This is exactly what transpired with Mr. Folau.
God is withholding rain in due season so that people may turn to Him in prayer. He may relent as per scripture in Amos 5:15 if we “Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph”. We are that remnant. He wants us to recognise where we derive all our talents, gifts, and blessings from. All that people need to do is humble themselves by carefully thinking about who is ultimately in charge, who controls the weather, and who gives us what we have. Then begin to pray to God and seek a relationship with Him. This takes time. Do this daily but keep at it even though it may not seem like anyone is listening to you — plan to invest a little of your time each day because you will not regret this.
Praying does not come automatically and does not feel natural until time and effort through experience is put in. It will benefit you now and in the time to come when Jesus Christ will usher in the Kingdom of God and we will all have a most wonderful relationship with our Creator and His Father (Revelation 22). Think of it like you are talking to a friend whom you admire and have deep respect for. For now the vast majority of hearts and minds are blinded; they are continually deceived by the devil. God allows satan to have rulership to a certain degree for now, to test and see what choices we all make, to see how we exercise the gift of free will, and whether we will resist and overcome sin. However, God’s people must take up the challenge to continue to warn and let others know that if they would only humble their hearts and turn to God sincerely in prayer He would hear and save them from the wicked and evil ruler of this age, satan the devil who has blinded their eyes to his existence and scheming wiles (2 Corinthians 4:4).
How does one tell a deceived individual that they are deceived? They will most likely not listen. Why bother? Easier to just forget about those who do not want to know what is really going on and cannot be seen by the eyes because it is supernatural. Yet those in the know, those with the truth, have a conscience and listen to God as they have a very deep, personal relationship with Him. Imagine having your daily prayers answered every day in one form or another. Reminders constantly that God is observing you throughout all of your daily pursuits. Yes it can happen and it does, as those who are connected to God with imperfect hearts learning to be more like their Creator each day, have such an experience. Seems incredible does it not?
Until I experienced this first hand 13 years ago I would have roared laughing thinking religious people are nuts. I could not understand why God allows suffering...that really got me confused, even angry at why bad things happen to good people. Now I know. It is not the time now for everything to be perfect as we are all sinners but we can learn to resist sin and overcome it with help from God. That is why we need God. He is there to help us as He made us, but we need to ask for His help. There will be times of challenge but the rewards are so worth it. Perhaps reading the booklet on why God allows suffering will help you too? Check out the link below as you have nothing to lose and everything to gain! This is a personal challenge for YOU!
Why Does God Allow Suffering?