Yo, God~~~Renew Your Strength and Soar like an Eagle

But those who wait for The Lord, who expect, look for, and hope in Him shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up close to God as eagles mount up to the sun; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint; or become tired. Isaiah 40:31

As I reached for my weights this morning to start my daily weight loss class I call "Yo, God" my imagination already was ahead of me. Instantly I knew what scripture I wanted to meditate on while working out. Feeling great from the refreshing Christmas gathering with my family there were new smiles on my face and heart that weren't there before. 

Before meeting with my family I felt like the poem that stated "how do I know my youth has been spent because my get up and go has got up and went."  Mine was more like this:

 

" How do I know that my strength has been spent.

Because my get up and go has got up and went. 

With my spirit flat on the floor and my smile upside down

I wondered how in the world was I going to get around. 

My cancer had me dragging; life's stress had its toil,

was there really something I could do to get out of this hole?

Then I spent time in the scripture and exchange laughter with others,

suddenly what was flat was no longer smothered. 

It's true what God says about renewing your strength,

next time I will mount up like an eagle in a blink. 

It may take me back to the scriptures, to my family galore

but one thing I know I won't leave my spirit at the door. 

God is my strength its not the weights in my hands

but its His love and His presence that gives me my stand.  

Now with my spirit inflated again to be worn,

my upturned smile returns to me more. 

Come fly with me eagles, come fly with me now.

Lets renew our strength in God and get our feet off the ground. 

Life's too short to be a chicken unable to fly.

Lets fly away, fly away, fly away all. 

Mount up fellow eagles. 

"Yo, God here comes Your convocation of eagles."

Copyright 2014 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipe Publishing
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Yo, God~~~~~Let my Voice be Heard

I will wash my hands in innocence and go about Your altar, O Lord. That I may make the voice of thanksgiving heard and may tell of all Your wondrous works. Lord, I love the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells. Psalm 26:6-8

On Thanksgiving day before getting into the fast lane of preparing a meal, shopping for bargains, and dealing with unnecessary drama I grab for my weights. As I do that my heart grabs for a scripture to hold on to. The one I found today was in the Psalm where so many blessings and truths dwell. 

The first order of business I am told to take care of is to wash my hands in innocence. In other words I need to cleanse myself. The soap and water I have to use is Jesus and the cleansing He brought upon the cross. I don't need to dirty my hands nor my soul of the things of the earth. We get dirty enough as it is. Where I belong is going about my Heavenly Father's throne or altar concentrating and meditating on the things above. 

Too often the things of this world get in the way of that and we lose site of what is really important. Such as the making of the voice of thanksgiving to be heard by telling of God's wondrous works and meditating on it. Unfortunately more frequently than not we like to let our voice be heard regarding the person we don't like, how the church music is too loud, or the font on the music sheets are too small. 

Our mediation is all wrong. I have a choice to dwell on the weights I am lifting in my hands or the wondrous works of God. Is it going to be my voice of grumbling people hear or the voice of thanksgiving. Which is it going to be depends on the content of my heart and the choices I make in my spirit. 

Today I want my voice to be heard. The voice of thanksgiving for God's wondrous works. Just because I have cancer doesn't mean I can't be thankful. 
There's more cleansing and healing in being thankful than complaining and living off the negative side of life's coin. 

I love You, Lord. Thanks for all Your wondrous works. Including those you have done for me thru Your grace and mercy. Equipping me for each of life's journeys I have traveled thru with Your strength and guidance. 

Happy Thanksgiving. Let my voice be heard. 

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Yo, God~~~Choosing our steps

"Righteousness will go before Him. And shall make His footsteps our pathway."
Psalms 85:13

As I rose before the morning sun it was time to look into my Bible to find a scripture to take with me to my morning "yo, God" class. A scripture to meditate on to bring strength and fitness to my spiritual body. The scripture that caught my attention was found in Psalms 85:13. 

What stood out the most to me was the fact that God's footsteps shall be our pathway. Being a person who has to choose my steps carefully because of my bone cancer pathways are important. The smoother and flatter the better, even then I carefully make sure I am not going to step wrong causing myself to fall. 

Spiritually is no different. The smoother and flatter the better although that's not always the case. It's great that God paves the road ahead of us with His footsteps. His righteousness that goes before Him is the paving material that is laid down to establish our pathway. 

As I lift my weights this morning I can't help but thank The Lord for what He has done for me. It indeed helps to know I don't have to blaze my own trails. I may need to lift my own weight temporarily but even that spiritually is not done alone. 

What I need to meditate on this morning is choosing my steps carefully on a path already paved for me. Looking close to where I am going that I may not fall. It doesn't matter how smooth or flat the surface I could still fall but the biggest issue is if I stay down or gracefully arise again to walk with the Lord in His footsteps. The choice is mine. The pathway is His. 

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Yo,God How long?

Today as I reached out to pick up my weights for my morning Yo, God class I noticed myself choosing my lighter weights. "Hum' I thought to myself wouldn't it be wonderful to get to choose what size of weight for the day would be on my heart.

If that were the case my choice would be a lot smaller than the huge burden plaguing my heart now. Our only transportation had broken down, the dog had taken ill, trouble mounting at work, financial difficulties, marital tensions and so much more were all a part of the weight I was feeling.

The scripture I kept wanting to meditate on was the one in Psalm 6:3 that said "my soul is greatly troubled, how long?" How long, how long, how long kept echoing in my heart like a scratched record that wouldn't quit playing the same thing over and over again. As was the remedy for the record player my soul needed a good bump to get it out of that stuck position so it could go beyond that one area.

Sure enough after a good bump my spirit was able to land on the scripture in the same chapter that made sense to dwell upon. Psalm 6:8,9 that talked about how The Lord has heard the voice of our weeping, He hears our supplication, and He will receive our prayer.

How long? Who knows. What matters is that the Lord hears us and receives our prayers. The rest lies in faith and trust in Him. The road toward anything always seems the longest. We'd rather be on the return portion where it goes by quickly and we're done.

If you think about it often the amount of weight on our heart is chosen by us. We may not be able to choose where the weight came from. The circumstances or the reasons but we can choose our weight by how much we are going to trust in Jesus. Unloading on Jesus lightens the load. Knowing He hears and receives our prayers lightens the load too.

We need to take control over that which we have control over, our faith and trust and leave the 'how long's' to Jesus.



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Yo, God ~~~~Facing instead of flinching

1 Sam 17:41-48 paraphrase: Goliath walks out toward David and shouts at him. David replies, "you come with swords and weapons I come to you in the name of The Lord. He will conquer you today and everyone will know God doesn't need weapons to rescue His people." Then David quickly ran out to meet Goliath. 

As I began my morning exercise my mediation was on the story of David and Goliath. I bet David never had to lift weights, I thought to myself. Instantly putting a damper on my pity party I started to think about what David encountered when he faced his giant. 

 David in this story had a chance to face Goliath or flinch. He could have cowered back with everyone else but he didn't.  He shouted back at Goliath in the name of The Lord, declaring The Lord. Next thing he does is quickly run out to meet Goliath. 

With each pull at my muscles and the dumbbells I ask God for the strength to be like David who faced his giant instead of flinch. 

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Yo, God~~ Follow instead of Stumble

Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have light that leads to life." John 8:12 NLB

As I sit down to meditate on God's word and lift up my weights to stretch my arms I think of the weight on my heart. Whether the dumbbells in my hands are hard or not to lift often depends on yesterday's activities or the lack there of. 

Same with the weight on my heart trying to deal with my cancer. Whether its hard or not to lift depends on yesterday's activities of faith and trust in God. I am promised in God's word that if I follow Him as my guiding light I will not stumble thru the darkness. 

Wow, how is that possible when trying to fight my cancer seems so dark? Every corner has a hidden surprise. Every path seems to be full of dark shadows in between some reflection of light. It's like traveling down a road lined with trees casting their shadows on what should be a well lite trail. 

As I stretched out my arms once again with the dumbbells my heart evidently stretched out as well as I thought of something. God's promise in the Scripture for today isn't well lit, pain free, no stumbling, or smooth paths. His promise is in the darkness we will not stumble if we follow Him. 

It is through the darkness we are led if we are willing to follow Him.  If I find myself tripping I am no different than Peter who was tripping over the waves when he took his eyes off of Jesus on the water. 

Its up to us whether we want to be a Peter or not. As for me, in the darkness I will not stumble because I will follow the one true light that can lead me through it. Together Jesus and I will journey thru my cancer. Him in the lead as always lighting the path before me as I follow. 

Copyright 2014 Karen J Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing 

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To, God

Today for our "Yo, God" class the scripture God lead me to meditate on is:

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; in fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; Make Your way straight before my face. Psalm 5:7,8

In this scripture the phrase, 'but as for me,' shows a lot of strength. It is someone who knows where they want to go and are in no need of following a crowd to get there. Boldly you can hear them state that in spite of what others were doing they chose for themselves to come into God's house of mercy to worship Him out of reverence fear and respect. 

As I lift each weight I hold in my hands and slowly stretch out my arms I think to myself, "Wow! I can't think of a better place to pick than to be in God's house of the multitude of His mercy." In the world we live in we could all use a multitude of mercy. However, the thing to meditate on right now as we stretch our heart as well as our muscles is to think about what he did once in the house of mercy. 

Instead of entering grumbling and complaining he came to worship. This is where we go wrong. We think because life is dragging us thru all sorts of pain that we have the right to come complaining instead of worshipping. Wrong indeed. Even in the midst of pain there needs to be worship. 

We need to focus on what God is capable of doing instead of what life has done to us. Once we worship the next step is to surrender our lives to The Lord asking for Him to do the leading. 

Leading in His righteousness not our emotions or complaints. Leading in a way strait before our face that we can see to follow. As I was about to set down my dumbbells and call it a good mediation and exercise session something caught my attention. 

The scripture read I will come "in" the house of The Lord "in" the multitude of God's mercy. In God's mercy we enter. We don't enter on our own. 

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Yo, God ~~~Protective Custody

Yo, God this morning as I reach for my Bible and weights my emotional and spiritual heart seemed to fall on the same thought about protective custody. Looking up Psalm 34:7 I read, "The angel of The Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them."

At the lifting of each weight it felt good to think about such a promise in the Bible. The more I meditated on it the more it seemed to lift the burdens that were weighing down my heart. Suddenly in the midst of lifting each arm high above my head I realized I was fearing the wrong thing.

The promise I just read was for those who fear God not for those afraid of others. The thought that God was willing to take the time to encamp around me made me realize I needed to do my part and stay still and accept that protection.

Getting all upset over my burdens or the weights on my heart from life and throwing them around didn't make sense. I needed to treat them as I did the dumbbell weights in my hands and slowly move them up to The Lord to release them into His care. His protective custody.

The place of comfort. The environment of peace. Yo, God you're the best. Thank you for all you do.



Copyright 2014 Karen J Gillett at pencil marks and recipes publishing

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Yo God, Lifter of My Head

God is a shield around me, the lifter of my head Ps 3:3

As I get out my weights to lift this morning I think of the scripture from Ps 3:3 where it tells me God is a shield around me, the lifter of my head. As I got started in my exercises the more I tried to lift the weights in my hands the repetition of doing it over and over made the weight even heavier.

Soon what started out at a pretty good speed has slowed down to a great effort to get them even two inches into the air. It was here as I tried my best to get the weights up as high as possible that made me think of God being the lifter of my head.

I began to wonder for the many times my head was in need of lifting if God ever got tired and worn out. Finding Himself totally fatigued to the point He just couldn’t lift it any higher than two inches from its down position. Suddenly with that last thought a smile came upon not only my face but my heart as well. Instantly I knew what I had just described were my efforts to raise my chin not God’s.

 It doesn’t matter how many times He has to do it, His arm will never grow weary, and the weight of our chin will never be too much for Him.

“Yo, God. I like that idea. As much as I would like to blame the fact I have too many chins to hold up there are never too many for You. You are a shield around me to protect and keep me safe from myself as well as Satan. Thank you for Your love and the strength You give me to go on. May You forever be the one who is the lifter of my head and the shield that will always surround me. I love you Lord.”

© 2014 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing Journey on Our Knees