Nov 12 2007
Georgia prays for rain
What to do when the rain won’t come? If you’re Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, you pray. The governor will host a prayer service next week to ask for relief from the drought gripping the Southeast.
“The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power,” Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said on Wednesday. Perdue’s office has sent out invitations to leaders from several faiths for the service, set for Tuesday.
Perdue has several times mentioned the need for prayer — along with water conservation — as the state’s drought crisis has worsened. Over the summer, he participated in day of prayer for agriculture at a gathering of the Georgia Farm Bureau in Macon, Ga. Perdue, a Baptist, has enjoyed strong support from Georgia’s Christian conservatives.
Read about it here.
[From me]
This should be fun. Sonny is the real deal. He even teaches a Bible Study at a church in metro Atlanta. Before people blast him he has opened it up to people of all faith. Maybe we could have a prayer off?
What do you think?
10 responses so far
The Army Corp of Engineers set the rate of water release some 20 years ago. GA, AL, and FL have been fighting each other over water at least 17 years (they all get water from the Lanier aquifer in GA).
Sonny blames the mollusks and the Core of Engineers for the water shortage. He says that the Core of Engineers reduced the rate of water release to protect an endangered species of mollusk in FL. However, the mollusk issue didn’t surface until many years after the Core of Engineers set the water release rate.
Governor Barnes, Sonny’s predecessor, said that the governor of GA’s primary concern should be WET (water, education, transportation); he should improve these if he does nothing else. Barnes planned to build additional reservoirs, but he lost the election to Sonny - water management wasn’t on the Sonny-Do list. Instead, Sonny sunk 19 million into his Go Fish initiative to turn GA into a fisherman’s paradise.
The drought we’re having now is just part of the normal weather pattern - the drought should have been avoided via better water management. In the mean time, the Core of Engineers advise that we don’t risk running out of water for 90 days - and that any rain will extend the time table.
If Sonny starts praying right away, he’s got a better than even chance we’ll get rain before March of 2008. I’m expecting a miracle!
Here are a few additional details:
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071031/APA/710310934&template=apart
It seems God has already provided.
OK, I live in Georgia so I can say this…
Maybe God doesn’t want to send rain. Maybe He wants our undivided attention and it will take drastic measures to get it. Maybe He wants us to pray in true repentance, bowing before Him and giving up the thrones of our lives and putting Him on the throne.
May we all cry out for His rule and reign in our lives so that He can pour out His Spirit upon us. And His rain, if He so chooses.
I don’t know “Sonny” so maybe what I’m saying doesn’t apply to him, but it both amuses and irritates me when people turn to prayer in a time of crisis, but in prosperity they toot their own horn. I realize I’m generalizing quite a bit, but when it come to politicians, it’s above the 90% confidence limit.
Prayer should be an act of humility, recognizing that whether in distress or blessing, it is God’s providence at work, whether manifested in a miracle or the “normal weather patterns,” whether through stock market booms or busts. Those who grasp at prayer as a last ditch effort are most likely to fail to see the deep blessings of God.
I really appreciate what you bring to this site and always look forward to reading in.
We need rain here too in So. California! I am praying for it. Erin
marie,
Hmm. Maybe you’re right. Then when it does rain before the 80-day deadline (and I’m expecting that it will
), then who do you suppose will have made it rain, being that God doesn’t want it to and all?
Or are you saying that if it doesn’t rain, then it is God’s will that it doesn’t, but if it does rain, then that is God’s will that it does? Following your reasoning, if I believed in God, then that would be God’s will. But if I didn’t believe in God, then that would be God’s will. In fact, I don’t believe in God, therefore it is God’s will that I don’t (since whatever ends up happening is God’s will), and He is actually quite pleased with me for following His will
Is that pretty much the way it works?
AAA, it is God’s will that all men come to belief in Jesus Christ. It is your will that you refuse Him. He allows your will to supercede His when it pertains to your eternal destination.
It is God’s will that His children fall on their knees in repentance before Him and say “whatever” God, I want YOU MORE than I want rain.”
Rain lasts for a moment; God, an eternity. I choose God.
Just now got to respond since we’ve been on the road all day and I was driving so I couldn’t post on my Treo.
Erin,
Thanks for the kind words.
A3,
I agree with what Marie says.
Bill,
I agree with you but from what I know about Sonny he is a Godly man.
Kevin,
About the rain?
Can’t post while driving? What’s the point of having a Treo? (just kidding
)
It rained! …just like Sonny (and the National Weather Service) predicted it would! It’s the miracle I had been expecting!
(according to the National Weather Service, there is a 20% chance of a miracle next Tuesday and Wednesday - so we should start praying around Saturday-Sunday-ish)