From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
September 10 "And floods upon the dry ground." Isaiah 44:3 How often does the soul, born and taught of God, feel
that it is this "dry ground!" It would gladly be fruitful in every good word
and work; it would be adorned with every grace of the Spirit within, and
with every good and godly fruit without. Let no one think that the child of
God is careless or indifferent either as to inward or outward fruit. There
is nothing too holy, too heavenly, too spiritual, or too gracious which the
child of grace would not desire inwardly to experience and outwardly
produce. But he feels that he cannot by any exertion of his own
produce this fruitfulness after which he sighs. As well might a barren field
convert itself into a fruitful garden without being tilled by human hand or
without rain from the sky, as a soul that feels and knows its own barrenness
produce by its own exertions a crop of the fruits of righteousness. But the Lord that knows the desire of the heart, and its
inward mourning over its own barrenness, has given in the text a sweet and
gracious promise, "I will pour floods upon the dry ground." A partial shower
would not be enough. The dry ground would soon absorb only a few drops of
summer rain. Floods must come, either from the skies or from the streams of
that river which makes glad the city of God, to produce this mighty change.
These "floods" are the promises poured into the soul, the love of God shed
abroad in the heart, the manifestations of Christ and of his atoning blood,
the inflowings of grace as super-abounding over all the aboundings of sin,
and the flowing of peace as a river into the contrite spirit.