A bus ride of Praising

You might have read this on my blog, but we spent 67 hours on
a bus to get here from South Africa.  One heck of a crazy travel week.
 65 people on a 65 passenger bus for 67 hours.  3 border crossings.
One of which we spent about 6 or 7 hours at as the Mozambique border
officals took their sweet time filling out the paper work.  Spent one
night on a hot bus with 65 other people while sitting at a border.
Spent another night sleeping under a semi truck trailer bed in a
parking lot at a border.  Ate PBJ for just about every meal for the 67
hours.  But honestly, I wouldn’t trade any of that experience for the
world.  As can be expected, God taught all of us so much during that
time.  For me, most of it wast just trusting in Him, dying to myself,
and praising Him in all circumstances.  I can remember one moment when
I was hit with that.   During the first couple days of the trip, I
complained and grumbled way too much.  Especially after the night of
sleeping on the bus.  Like I said, we spent one night sleeping on the
packed bus.  Needless to say, 65 people can produce a ton of body
heat, and it was a long, very uncomfortable night.  As the sun rose in
the morning, and we were able to get off the bus, I found myself still
complaining about the night we had just had.  A couple hours later, we
were standing in line to get paperwork done at the Mozambique border,
and some people started worshipping.  The words of the song were Lord
prepare me to be a sanctuary.  Pure and holy, tried and true.  With
thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.  These words hit me,
and I was convicted of my attitude of the previous couple days.  God
calls us to be a living sanctuary for Him, and He calls us to do it
with thanksgiving.  Later, as we were about 4 or so hours into waiting
at the border, we started to worship.  In the middle of being outside
and in front of random Mozambiqueans, we just worshipped our God.  And
the whole atmosphere began to be changed.  We still didn’t know when
we would get to cross the border, but it didn’t matter.  Our God is
worthy to be praised in all circumstances.  More so, our praise and
our prayers are strong weapons against the schemes of Satan.  As the
bus trip went on, the attitude was different.  Though we still came
across obstacles, we knew to worship and praise our God who was going
to get us through every hindrance.  As this month has gone on, I’ve
tried to remember that.  I haven’t always been successful, but I’ve
begun to learn more and more that I always have 2 choices:  give into
the lies of Satan and give up, or continue to praise God and continue