We have all heard the children's rhyme "April showers bring May flowers. It gives us a ray of hope during stormy April weather that blooming trees, shrubs, and flower beds are just around the corner. They need this spring rain as they bud with colorful blooms.
Latter Rain
In the Old Testament, the spring rains are called the "latter rain." Latter is defined as nearer to the end or the second of two things. It seems odd because we think of spring being first and rain in the fall as being the latter. The Old Testament talks about latter rain as it relates to their crops. They were growing grains like barley and winter wheat, which are planted in the fall and harvested in early summer. These crops are planted in October and how much rain they get in the spring determines if the crop will produce a plentiful or paltry harvest. The early April rains prepare the heads of grain for their final ripening before harvest. April showers are very important.
Hosea 6:3 tells us:
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain;
like the spring rains He will water the earth.
Pursue the Lord
As I studied this verse this meaning opened up to me. This is my understanding of what Hosea is admonishing us to do:
Let us spend time with and have a direct interaction with the Lord. Let us pursue the Lord to spend time with Him and have a direct interaction with Him. His presence is as inevitable and reliable as the Dawn. He will saturate us with rain like the April showers that bring a fruitful harvest.
Hosea is urging us to know the Lord. He tells us to pursue or exert an effort to seek after a personal experience with our Lord. Hosea tells us that we can be confident that we will find God because his presence is to be expected just like we rely on the sun rising in the morning. When He appears, He will shower us with His blessings of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Spending time in His presence causes us to be fruitful. It increases our harvest. He brings that to us. Our role is to pursue Him.
Soaking Leads to Fruit
I think Hosea had this figured out! From personal experience, I will say that the more time spend with God, the more I see His character rubbing off on me. We tend to pick up the traits of those we hang out with a lot. This is no different. When we soak in His presence, we are fruitful. What does that fruit look like? I don't want to put any limits on what that fruit can be, but I do know that in Galatians 5 the bible tells us about the fruits of the Spirit that I listed above. This is the culture of God's kingdom. I don't know about you, but I can use a lot more of all of these in my life!
Join Me?
Will you pursue and seek to know with me? I am creating a couple of Mini Courses to inspire some ideas of how we can learn more about God through reading His Word, and ways to pursue Him through regular times seeking His presence in a variety of different ways. Maybe one or two will inspire you to press in and experience God in a very real and life-changing way. You can get started with the Daily Practice course that will walk you through some ways to pursue God's presence and enjoy the fruitfulness that results. I will be adding a course on How to Read the Bible with some examples of different ways to interact with the bible that can help you make sense of a book that is like no other. Let me know if there is something specific you would like me to cover. You can email me at aprildoolin@gmail.com or reply in the comments below.
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