Fresh Rain

There is an appointed time for everything and there is a time for every event under heaven.  Ecclesiastes .3:1
We experience times and seasons according to the purposes of the Lord; in the Atlanta area we have a specific time known as “pollen season”.  It’s everywhere, a thick coating.  Some days bring us a fresh rain, which washes away the coating of yellow.  Following the rain there is a residue where the rain causes puddles.  Future rains will settle the additional pollen until the season is over and we will have long forgotten our temporary frustration and inconvenience with the heavy coating and blowing pollen.  Later seasons of fruitfulness and harvest depend on pollen season.
There are times in the natural that we are negatively affected by what seem to be a heavy coating, we are discouraged, feeling weighty and looking for this season of heaviness to be over.  We long for a fresh rain to wash away the depression and discouragement, which so easily can come when we’re expecting one thing and it seems the opposite, is occurring.  It is during this time that our enemy comes to bring fear that this is the way it is and is going to be.  Nothing’s really going to change, not for you at least.  You might as well just settle in and get comfortable.  Forget it; you didn’t hear what you though you heard, etc…  (sound familiar)
God in His faithfulness sends a refreshing, but there is still a residue remaining.  It’s during this time the enemy seeks to bring us into a place of overwhelm.  There are times when you’ve done all you just stand and preserve.  We may feel momentarily refreshed, but it’s seems as though it’s hard to shake off all the residue.  We are to know that just as in the natural during pollen season there is a plan and there is a purpose at work for our good.  This is a season of preparation for fruitfulness and the harvest.  We can know that whatever we feel or the enemy has brought our way that as we are faithful to cry out to the Lord, pressing into Him for more – He is faithful.  He sends the fresh rain that may not look like what we have been expecting, but it is indeed bringing the fresh reign that we’ve so longed for.  It may not appear as what we’ve envisioned and there may be some residue remaining, but we are to keep pressing toward that promised new season.  We will enter into fruitfulness and a harvest that has been born out of a season of hindrance and inconvenience.
We find our self at a new level of trust.  We can trust knowing the Lord has our times and seasons in His hand.  He knows our end all the way to the beginning.  The enemy tries to convince us that he’s in charge of our times, but God is at work to bring His fresh reign into our lives moving us from one place of faith to that increase of faith where we find ourselves at another level.  Our circumstances may come and go, but we can know that the Word of the Lord abides forever.
In the Atlanta area we’ve been in a Class 4 Drought and the pollen season was excessively heavy (or so it seemed at the time) but there is an abundant harvest coming because we’ve had an increase of fresh rains.  The discouragement has been excessive, but there is a great harvest season in store for us.  We may not know what to expect or have details, but we know there is a season coming.