12 Reasons to Go to Church on Rainy Sundays
The following is an adapted article that was originally published in 1916.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your
God.…The Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 20:8–11
I attend church on rainy Sundays because:
God has blessed the Lord’s day and hallowed it, making no exceptions for hot or cold, or stormy days.
I expect my minister to be there. I should be surprised if he were to stay at home on account of the weather.
If his hands fall through weakness, I shall have great reason to blame myself, unless I sustain him by my prayers and presence.
By staying away I may lose the prayers which may bring God's blessing, and the sermon that would have done me great good.
My presence is more needed on Sundays when there are few, than on those days when the church is crowded.
On any important business rainy weather does not keep me at home, and church attendance is, in God's sight, very important.
Among the crowds of pleasure-seekers I see that no weather keeps one from the ball, the party, or the concert.
There is a special promise that where two or three meet together in God's name, he will be in the midst of them.
An avoidable absence from the church is an infallible evidence of spiritual decay. Disciples first follow Christ at a distance, and then, like Peter, do not know him.
My faith is to be shown by my self-denying Christian life, and not by the rise or fall of the thermometer.
Such yielding to surmountable difficulties prepares for yielding to those merely imaginary, until thousands never enter a church, and yet think they have a good reason for such neglect.
I know not how many more Sundays God may give me, and it would be a poor preparation for my first Sunday in heaven to have slighted my last Sunday on earth.
Meet the author:
Frances Havergal
1836–1879
Frances Havergal was a British author, poet, and hymn writer. Best known today for her hymns such as “Take My Life and Let It Be” and “Like a River Glorious,” Havergal also wrote more than a hundred other hymns, as well as spiritual poems and rich devotional books. Havergal’s writings contain rich theological truths in the moving style of a poet.