There’s nothing worse than camping in incessant rain, which is probably why, after a few torrential days at summer camp, a church pastor I was praying with felt a need to say:

“Lord, when we sang the song about you coming like the rain, we meant the rain of your spirit!”

Well, that immediately put an end to our quiet prayer time as an absurd image of God as a heavenly Homer Simpson saying, ‘Doh!’ suddenly popped into everyone’s heads.

I remembered this moment and another just like it when I saw the news image of Hindu Holy Men sitting in water barrels praying for an end to drought.  We do not believe in the same God, but I had to admire their perseverance.  There aren’t many times in my life when I’ve prayed for rain, but an occasion at Children’s camp jumps out.  We were learning about Africa and praying for the droughts they experience.  One of the leaders half-jokingly suggested that we should pray for our rainy weather to go to Africa and for us to get their sunshine. At the end of the week when the sun had come out and we had all but forgotten about the rain, a child stepped forward in the final meeting and prayed emphatically into the microphone,

“Lord, thank you that it is sunny here today, because that means there is rain in Africa.”

To him it was simple: sun here = rain there because that’s what we asked God to do. In that one simple prayer, without any pretence or performance, that child taught every leader present a lesson in faith.

How often do we send up a prayer with the same attitude someone might have when buying a lottery ticket – “Well it might happen, cant hurt to try anyway!" How often do we forget what it means to have the faith of a child?  And why is it that everyone else seems to have that faith when I struggle?

I’m not just thinking about Christians when I dwell on this challenge; I’m thinking about people from other faiths, or even people who live by their weekly horoscopes. Working in a Muslim environment I met plenty of followers of Folk-Islam who believe whole-heartedly in charms and amulets for protection.  Living in China I saw people visit temples just to touch the belly of a Buddha said to bring prosperity. It makes me wonder why I all too often lack the confidence and level of belief that a small child at a summer camp showed in a one-sentence prayer of thanks?

Jesus says in Matthew 21:22 that ‘If {we} believe, [we] will receive whatever [we] ask for in prayer’ but so often, even as we pray, there is a part of us that doesn’t quite believe it’s going to happen. Over time, we start to believe what the world tells us and little by little our faith in God’s promises gets watered down.  But that’s not how the writer of Hebrews encourages us to pray…

"It's impossible to please God apart from faith... he cares enough to respond to those who seek him."  Hebrews 11:5-6

We have a God who cares enough to send His Son to open up paths of communication.  Who is so powerful He spoke the known Universe into existence.  So, that is why I want to see my faith being watered by the rain of the Holy Spirit, not watered down by the world around me. Why I want to be a person who stands firm in God’s promises no matter what the world says.  I’m not there yet… but that’s just another thing to believe for!

Author biography:

Kate Wilson has recently returned from working as a missionary in BosniaHerzegovina with Novi Most International. She now works in Novi Most’s UKoffice where she does all kinds of office related things and drinks largeamounts of tea.