Monday Reflection – September 13, 2021

Monday Reflection – September 13, 2021
Showers from God

Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the Lord have created it. Isaiah 45:8

As I read and reflected on today’s Watchword, my mind went to this famous hymn that we sing:
There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Saviour above.
 
Refrain:
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.

In Isaiah 45, God makes solid declarations as He asserts his sovereign power over all creation. At the start of this chapter, God shows his control over human history by declaring his plan to use Cyrus, a stranger, foreigner, alien who did not acknowledge God to accomplish God’s will.  God also reminds His people of His control over nature, including sun, light and darkness. He further asserts in today’s Watchword that He will shower His people with the righteousness from Heaven. This is a very intriguing verse and one filled with the riches of God’s promises from heaven.

We usually associate heaven with the afterlife, a wonderful and beautiful place we get to live after our time here on earth. However, Isaiah 45:8 declares the showers of heavens raining down its righteousness on earth. Note that God commands the earth to open, so that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit. God can send His blessing from every direction. It comes down from the heavens, it comes up from the earth.

When the earth opens up to receive God’s blessing, there is a place for such blessing to go and bear fruit. Like a seed planted in fertile soil, the seed is the gift and the soil is the receiver. It takes both for the seed to sprout. God declares that the earth will open up to receive, and make salvation and righteousness sprout and grow. Salvation here means liberty, deliverance, prosperity and safety.

As believers, we have opened up our hearts and received Jesus Christ, God’s gift of salvation and righteousness. We, as the soil, and God as the giver, together cause these gifts to sprout and fill the earth with the sweet aroma of liberty, prosperity and safety. And lest we forget, God finishes Isaiah 45:8 with, “I the Lord have created it.” It is His sovereign power that makes it so, not man or the wealth and power of nations, but God alone. We, who are receivers of God’s gracious providence, are now obligated to spread his salvation and righteousness throughout the world.

There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain.

There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call!

Jermaine Gibson