Turn back and do your work….

It is certainly not always easy to get up and go on when you feel or are discouraged. It's as if  you do not have the strength to do anything or even raise your arms. What about going on and working and living?

Elijah was prophet in the time of Ahab. The king's wife Jezebel brought idolatry into the land. Elijah admonishes the people and the king against it. Finally, he challenges the prophets of Baal to do a test to see who God really is. The Lord of Israel or the idol Baal. After the events, he had all the false prophets killed.

Jezebel was furious. She lets Elijah know that she is going to kill him too. He had to flee and ended up in the desert where he crawls under a shrub and wished that he could die.

It's the same Elijah who recently experienced the pinnacle of his life. God has shown that He is the Only Living God. It was a triumph. Shortly afterwards, Elijah sits despairingly under the scanty shade of the shrub in the desert. I wish I was dead (1 Kings 19: 4).

The Lord is indeed making a  lot of effort to lead this prophet back to where he must accept his calling again and that he must gain perspective. Turn back and do your work, says the Lord to Elijah. Do not sit here and mope. Go to work.

The ships are full of seafarers who are discouraged - as if they want to sit under a shrub in a desert. There are many causes for this. As the Lord spoke to Elijah, we at CSO also use the Lord's Word to encourage them. They hear that in grace they too can rise again and go to work, like Elijah. They hear that they can live the calling that God has given them.

In the story you are also a witness of faith - that because you assist CSO so that the sailors can hear the Word of the Lord. Let's all also continue to live out our own calling, not only to those around us but also to the seafarers visiting our ports!

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