When the Ground Feels Dry

There are seasons in life when everything feels parched.

We pray, we wait, and we wonder if anything good can still grow.

Joel knew something about that kind of season. His people had just lived through devastation — years of loss, famine, and fear. And yet, right there in the middle of the rubble, God speaks a promise:

“Be glad and rejoice… for the LORD has given the early rain for your vindication.
I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.” (Joel 2:23, 25)

It’s one of the most tender promises in all of Scripture — that what has been lost is not beyond redemption. But notice this: Joel doesn’t speak to a people who have already been delivered. He speaks in the midst of their rebuilding. The rain has just begun to fall. The ground is only starting to soften again.

That’s where faith often lives — somewhere between drought and harvest.

In that fragile middle space, Joel reminds us that God’s Spirit is still moving. The rain of grace still falls — not because we’ve earned it, but because love refuses to give up on us.

So if your soul feels dry, if the world feels weary, take heart. Restoration doesn’t always arrive as a sudden flood. Sometimes it comes as a slow, steady rain — softening the soil, drop by drop, until new life surprises you.

The invitation is simple: keep your heart open to the rain.

What are the “locust years” in your life that you long for God to restore?

Grace doesn’t erase the past — it transforms it. Even dry ground can sing again.