Insolomonsporch's Blog

Day Twenty-Four

Of Greasewood or Mesquite

“And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones.  And you shall be like a spring of water whose waters fail not.”

Is 58:11

          There is a place where drought and dryness is of more consequence than in the geographic territory where you physically reside.  Drought and dryness are worse when they permeate the landscape of your spiritual life – because you have neglected prayer.  Prayer waters the life of your spirit and feeds the life of Christ in you.  To not pray feeds your natural life and the life of sin in you.

          The Lord showed me a dramatic analogy of this as I walked along the desert terrain where I live.  Mesquite and greasewood compete across this basin for very limited water resources.  When rain has been really scarce (like it has been here) – the mesquite looks quite green alongside the brown and struggling greasewood.  But mesquite is vicious.  It harvests poisonous thorns of an inch long or better.  It spews toxins in the soil which restrict other plant encroachment within a perimeter of 2ft. around it.  It dominates the terrain in dangerous ways.  When rain has not fallen for months, mesquite provides an illusion of health while greasewood looks virtually dead.

          Mesquite is like what proliferates in the landscape of our heart when we neglect prayer.  The worst things in us arise, and while giving the appearance of vitality – they are thorny, deadly, and vicious.  When we neglect prayer it is like the desert where rain has failed to fall sufficiently to support better foliage – like the greasewood.  So in a sense, rain to the geographic terrain is like prayer to our spiritual terrain.  A shortage of rainfall allows thorny mesquite to arise and dominate.  A shortage of prayer allows our thorny, deadly, natural life to gain ground and dominate.  Good rainfall shifts the balance for a better more profitable ground cover of greasewood to thrive.  Increased prayer strengthens the life of Christ in us, and spiritually we look like well watered gardens. 

In the desert, we often become devoted to praying for rain when it has not come.  But it is time to pray more passionately for the prayer lives of our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

          So what about you?  Are you looking dry and parched and thorny in the spiritual state?  Is that the life that is dominating in you?  Or are you that well watered garden – the springs of which never fail and can even water others.  The Lord would have you be so and more.  He has made every provision for it.

          Be lush, be watered, be-loved!