“Hot enough for ya?”  How many times have you heard that this year? Where I live we have lots of days with triple digit temperatures. In the last month it only rained once at my house, and that was barely two tenths of an inch. We went more than a month with our low temperature never dropping below 80 degrees. Yes, it is hot enough for me.

Coupled with the heat are the drought conditions. While it is bad enough here, other parts of Texas have it even worse. Farmers are losing their crops. Ranchers cannot afford hay or feed for their herds. The economic impact is widespread. If the farmers and ranchers are not making money, all the businesses in their communities suffer. And it will most likely affect everyone in the form of dramatically higher prices for the commodities they produce, like beef and wheat and cotton.

How do we deal with the heat? We have no choice but to take things as they come. Our modern conveniences, like running water and air conditioners, make it much easier now than it was in the past to live with the heat. Even if your air conditioner breaks – and many of them have this year – you can still take a cool bath or shower!

My yard, like most of them around here, is brown. What amazes me is how the trees in my yard continue have green leaves. It is because their roots run deep and absorb the needed moisture from deep within the earth.

Scripture draws a parallel to our spiritual well-being.

Jeremiah 17:7–8 “…blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

If we are rooted in the one who came so that we might have life and have it to the full, we need not fear when the heat – physical or otherwise – comes. Jesus saw to it that our greatest need was met when He gave Himself as the sacrifice for sin and provided forgiveness. He gives the drink our spirits need to live (John 4:14). And the one who sent Jesus to be our Savior has promised that along with Him He will give us everything we need (Romans 8:32). That includes what we need to endure this heat and the drought.