"Lift Your Sails!"

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. (Psalm 100)

Rey jokes with me that after a couple years of worshipping in Honduras, I will be ready to run a marathon. Every Sunday morning I walk the dusty roads to church, Elijah in hand, because I know that I need to worship. Most Sundays it becomesunbearably hot in our one-room church, full of bodies in motion in the middle of a scorching day. We spend the majority of the two hours on our feet, in high-heals, clapping to the music or simply standing for prayer. I shift my weight trying to focus on understanding what is being said in a foreign language and feel the sweat pour down. Sometimes Sunday morning worship feels like a test of endurance, other times I sense the Spirit falling mightily on me, either way, I am glad I came.

Last night, I only got fifteen minutes of corporate worship before Elijah had a meltdown and I had to leave. But in those fifteen minutes, I saw again that the Lord is holy, holy, holy, (Santo, Santo, Santo) and all powerful to change any circumstance, any situation. I felt the stress melt off my shoulders and was able once again to see.

Someone once likened spiritual disciplines to lifting your sails on a boat. you never know when the wind is going to blow, but when it does, you are ready. When it comes softly, your only clue of the wind’s arrival is the slight movement of your boat, if your sails are up. My prayer for you this week is that you would lift your sails, do the things you did at first, so that if the Holy Spirit does happen to blow, you will be ready to receive Him.

Pastor Elise White-Diaz
Tegucigalpa, Honduras