Closing our umbrellas

            Have you ever walked outside to find it raining?  If you're lucky enough, you have an umbrella handy.  So you open it.  And of course you smile a bit when you see someone running to their car holding, I don't know, a brief case or a newspaper over their head.  There are a lot of reasons why you may want to use an umbrella.  They stretch from not wanting to catch a cold to worrying about your hair.

            But did you know that there are times when the last thing you want is an umbrella?  There are times when you want to shut the umbrella and let the rain fall on you.  It is when Jesus rains blessings down upon you from heaven.  His love flows so freely that is falls from heaven like rain and covers us.  If that were the case, the last thing we would want to do is open an umbrella, a

spiritual umbrella that is, and keep those blessings from drenching us.  Unfortunately, that is just what we so often do. 

            If we see someone in need and we don't help, we open the umbrella.  If we hold onto our money or material things because we are afraid to loose them, we open an umbrella.  If we continue to compromise our beliefs and allow for a "small" sin in our lives, up it goes.  If we choose not to practice the love of Christ, you got it, we open an umbrella.  And all of these umbrellas keep us from experiencing the blessings of His rain.  They are umbrellas of regret and shame. Of pride.  We may put them up in ignorance.  We may put them up in fear.  No matter how they get there, we choose to keep them up.  We choose to block His blessings for us.  But what we must realize is that in doing this we are listening to the enemy as he whispers lies in our ears.  "Be careful, you don't want to get wet."  "Boy God must be mad at you to put you out in this storm.  Good thing you have your umbrella to protect you."

            But it isn't protection.  It is hurting us.  It is holding us back from becoming rich, healthy, watered soil in which God can plant seeds of faith and trust. 

            The next time you are in a rain storm, think of closing your umbrella.  The way the rain falls, the way you can't avoid getting wet, that's they way He sends His blessing.  And I wouldn't worry about your hair.

SDG