Look for Your Cloud!

Like many people, I’ve a few areas in my life that are a bit…dry. One in particular is quite crispy. Crisss-pee!

My “situation” soured and then died years ago, yet for one reason or another the last nail was never placed in its coffin.

I was illegally “wronged,” tried to muddle through, then eventually gave “it” to God. This set me back financially and took years (yes, years) before I could finally forgive and move on.

The last thing I prayed concerning the matter was that “it would bless me.” This was over three years ago. And it was hardly a sweet declaration of optimism.

I stood in my bathroom crying. I screamed that “it” would no longer hold me (and my sanity) hostage. I figured I learned a hard lesson and at the least I would be wiser. This was only one thing in a season of drought that appeared endless.

Sometimes we do what is right and are still wronged. We wonder where is God? I believed God’s view was “I didn’t tell you to do that,” so I suffered the consequences.

Today, I was at an appointment and learned my desert may not be so dry after all. What I finally buried and put behind me, God may resurrect for my good!

God may be the reason that final nail never went into the coffin. My loss may have been a “strategic delay.” The most prominent cactus in my years long drought may actually bloom!

I’d given up on this “cactus.” It had drawn enough blood out of me. I didn’t want to touch it! However, when all was silent, could it be God allowed matters to fall as they would and bless me?  

This blessing may or may not manifest but its potential has stirred my faith and expectancy. Sometimes when we wander in the desert, we forget that cooling rains can come. God will answer. Just in His time.

As my husband and I ate lunch outdoors, out of nowhere the skies opened up with a tremendous downpour. We had to scurry for cover. Less than an hour after I caught a glimpse of my “cloud.”

I realized today that in this particular area, I’d stopped looking for my cloud. I’d sadly let the heat of my drought sap me of spiritual strength and expectancy. God has been so faithful, why did I doubt Him in this one area?

Keep your eyes open for your cloud. Elijah sent his servant out seven times looking for a sign of rain. Finally, the servant came back with a report. It wasn’t rain but it was the potential for rain.

Don’t lose your hope in what God can do. Dare to look beyond the obvious and have faith for the miraculous.

I think I can finally smell the rain.  DSC_9386 (2)

“Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.” James 5:7 NIV

  “Go and look toward the sea.” He told his servant. And he went up and looked.

“There is nothing there.” He said.

Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”

The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” I Kings 18: 43-44 NIV

 

By Lilka Finley Raphael

Author, Editor, Gardner, Photographer, Pharmacist

19 comments

  1. An encouraging story that I missed somehow. We need to be ever watchful for our cloud. It is easy to stop looking for it.

    Steve

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  4. Oh wow, such a precious post! I love that story of Elijah’s lookout for the rain cloud. Thanks for reminding me of it! Blessings to you, Lilka. :oD

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    1. Well, thank you Ellie for your kindness! I gladly accept. Now I will admit I’m rather slow when it comes to awards but I do eventually get to them as I only blog a couple of times a week and rarely about my intended topic..

      Thank you for thinking so highly of me and I will try my best to live up to your very kind words. 🙂 Peace and Blessings to you!

      Finding this was a very nice way for me to end my day after a hard day’s work!

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  8. Lilka, I have no idea of your crisp-pee (sorry that was the picture it brought to mind) 🙂

    Yet … the words you have written here brought to mind a whisper: “love the unloveable” over and again. For I have a crisp-pee in my life. No cloud in sight. And I wonder. And wonder. And wonder again. My heat has cooled. My blame has withered. Yet my “love the unloveable” is dragging its heels. And without any details in your words hee, your words here wrapped themselves around my crisp-pee. And massaged something deep inside. Love the unlovable. Maybe that cooling of personal ownership, the drought, the heat is just another season. A season lasting as long as the heat of drought last within me. And like all seasons, there is a transition. The hint of something to come. Over there on the horizon. My cloud I think might be forming. And I wonder if my heat has not yet cooled enough for it to form fully.

    Thank you.

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    1. It may be that the heat from my intense anger kept evaporating my cloud! And when I finally let it g and /gave it up God could turn it (and me!) around. Through God’s grace I loved the unloveable but it wasn’t at all easy!

      I’m so glad the words wrapped around you! That certainly wasn’t what I planned to write about but when God has His waaayyy…. 🙂

      Go ahead, pick up your feet and let your “it” go so you may be refreshed! Peace to you!

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