"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign Lord, "when I will send a famine through the land-not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it." -Amos 8:11-12 (NIV)
It's barely summer and most of Tennessee is experiencing a severe drought. The next three days are supposed to result in temperatures above 100 degrees with absolutely no rain in sight. Plants and gardens are dying. People are suffering from heat exhaustion. Trying to make light of things, one pastor told me that it's so hot, he found the devil backstroking in the baptismal pool yesterday and birds are now using potholders just to pull worms out of the ground. It's a drought of terrible proportions.
I'm definitely concerned about the drought we're experiencing and I am certainly praying for rain. But after reading today's suggested scripture reading, I'm also concerned about the lack of faithful Jesus followers in our community. Over 50% of the people in the county where I live don't regularly go to church. Apparently they have no place where a body of believers helps quench their spiritual thirst, feed their hungry souls, and where spiritual growth occurs in Christian community.
How's you spiritual life? Is it being quenched? What about your spiritual growth? Is it being fed? If you didn't water your vegetable garden or your flower bed anymore than you do your spiritual life, would your vegetable garden or flower bed survive the drought we're experiencing?
You can't do a lot to change the severe drought that Tennessee (and most of the country) is facing. But aren't there things you could be doing to address the drought in your spiritual life? What might those things be?
May God grant you the grace to do them and may God meet you with life-giving water and manna from heaven to restore your soul today.
If you're interested in reading the Bible through in a year, here are the suggested readings for this weekend:
Saturday: Isaiah 1-3, Titus 3
Sunday: Isaiah 4-5, Psalm 115-116, and Jude
I'll be back on Monday with devotional from Isaiah 6-7, 2 Chronicles 26-27, and Philemon.
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