Water my soul, Lord!
I know there was a rain
a while back
but in the interim
the sun has walloped me
with vicious rays
I’m shriveled
thirsty and dry
I know that when you come
you will bring a goblet
full of your choice drink
liquid that refreshes
all my roots
and in the morning
I’ll wake up to the miracle
of golden blossoms
then fresh green shoots
Waiting for refreshment? Everywhere I look here in northern Côte d’Ivoire, the earth is dry, heaps of leaves cover the ground where there are trees. Where there are no trees, withered plants and dust reign.
But as we came home from Tiepogovogo church on Sunday we noticed that the golden rain trees along the road were beginning to bloom. There has not been rain for weeks, but suddenly they show up and brighten the landscape with their blooms. They bring hope, because we know that they are a sign that dry season is ending; soon rain will fall. There is hope!
If this were your first time going through dry season here in Côte d’Ivoire, you would not recognize the signs. But if someone could point them out to you, you could look forward to rain and more green coming to life. It’s like when you’re going through tough times but you can trust that good things are coming because you know who is in charge of the seasons.
The last two Sundays at Tiepogovogo the messages have underlined our need to trust God to supply what we need. He is the Sovereign King, the one who reaches down to provide.
Glenn spoke on the 10th, telling the story from 1 Kings 2 about the severe drought that God had sent on Israel to punish them. The prophet Elijah had been hiding in the wilderness where there was still a little water, ravens bringing him food. But even that source of water dried up. Then Yahweh sent him to a widow in Zarephath, in a foreign country, and provided for him and for her there:
So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he went through the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please give me a cup of water, so I can take a drink.” 11 As she went to get it, he called out to her, “Please bring me a piece of bread.” 12 She said, “As certainly as the LORD your God lives, I have no food, except for a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. Right now I am gathering a couple of sticks for a fire. Then I’m going home to make one final meal for my son and myself. After we have eaten that, we will die of starvation.” 13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you planned. But first make a small cake for me and bring it to me; then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD God of Israel says, ‘The jar of flour will not be empty and the jug of oil will not run out until the day the LORD makes it rain on the surface of the ground.'” (1 Ki. 17:10 NET)
And that is what happened! Her flour and oil kept on being replenished right there in the jar and the jug! This was the result of her willingness to give up the last tiny bit of food that she had, sharing it with a man she had never met before. She had to trust his astonishing prediction of provision as not merely coming from a man.
The point is this: we have to put our trust in God and do what he says to do, even when we are running out of resources.
Pastor Brahima, the new pastor at Tiepogo, picked up on this theme again on the 17th. He started by asking the congregation: what was the teaching you heard here last week? A young man raised his hand and repeated the story and application—that in itself was proof that the message had been heard and digested! Brahima then underlined our need to trust God, that when we give what we have so that his purpose is accomplished, he will provide what is needed and we get JOY! Jesus himself said:
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. (Jn. 15:16 NET)
Brahima then shared another story of faith in Yahweh that once again took place in a foreign nation with an amazing outcome. “Neither the one about Elijah nor this one are in your Nyarafolo Bible yet,” he said, so he told it to them. It is in 2 Kings. The commander of the Syrian army, Naaman, had a severe skin disease:
Raiding parties went out from Syria and took captive from the land of Israel a young girl, who became a servant to Naaman’s wife. 3 She told her mistress, “If only my master were in the presence of the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his skin disease. (2 Ki. 5:2-3 NET)
This little girl had been removed from her home and family, and was now a slave in the home of an extremely powerful man. She dared to share her faith in the healing power of the prophet in her home country. So Naaman, desperate, traveled there, and of course went to the most powerful person there: the king! The Syrian king had sent a letter telling the king to heal Naaman, sending along payment for the service. The king of Israel was really upset—he knew that he was not God, he could not heal him! Elisha heard of the issue and sent a message to remind the king that there was a prophet of God in Israel! So the king gladly sent Naaman away. Now Elisha would have to deal with this problem.
But Elisha was not going to let it seem like he was the one who had the power to heal. He had to get Naaman to obey the washing ritual assigned to him, so that he would learn to trust a word that came through the prophet but was actually from Yahweh, the God he did not know. And although Naaman’s servants had to convince him to actually take this unexpected trip to the Jordan to bathe, once he did it and was healed, he confessed that now he knew the truth:
He said, “For sure I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.” 16 But Elisha replied, “As certainly as the LORD lives (whom I serve), I will take nothing from you.” (2 Ki. 5:15-16 NET)
All the credit was to go to God!
Elisha had faith that what the Lord had given him as a message for Naaman would result in his healing. The little enslaved girl had that faith too. And Jesus even put this miracle together with the case of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath to point out to those in the synagogue in his hometown, Nazareth, that faith is necessary or there is no miracle taking place (Luke 4:24-27).
It was intriguing to watch the congregation at Tiepogo drink in this preaching—they probably had not heard those biblical stories before.
And then a stunning conclusion happened: one of the singers, Koufanhawori, stood and said that he had a song to share. He hummed the tune to the balafon players, who launched a rhythmic flow of notes, and Koufanhawori sang the story he had just heard, a new song composed on the spot! What a way to underline the need for faith in the one and only God!
Most of you know those stories; you have them in your complete Bibles. And most of us are not living out an economic situation where we have nothing left. But put yourself in the place of poor farmers whose crops failed to bring in a profit last year–the cotton was diseased so did not yield, and the price paid for their cashews dropped significantly. They are now waiting for the rains to come so that they can plant the summer crops again. Think of the faith required to give the little money you have into an offering basket so that the pastor and his family can eat too. Think about how desperation can turn our heart eyes away from looking up to the Sovereign God in trust!
This may be a dry season for you, whether it is financial, physical, emotional or situational. But turn your eyes away from the dust and withered leaves to Yahweh, his promises, and trust that the rains will come! He will give signs of hope, of changing seasons—like the golden blossoms suddenly appearing on the dry branches of a leafless tree!
Linnea's Lines 