Prayer~~From the Womb to Heaven

Precious Heavenly Father, I praise You this day and every day for being there with me all the way from the time You knitted me together in my mother's womb till now as You chase me into eternity. Psalm 22:10

Thank you Lord for all that You have done for me. You have shaped me through hard times. Comforted me when I felt all alone. Healed my wounded heart multiple times. Gave me directions when I was lost. Disciplined me when I got out of hand. Hugged me when I needed held. You have listened to my cries and heard my many prayers. You have given me Your strength when mine has failed me. You have surrounded me like a shield with Your grace and mercy. 

All I can say Lord is You have blessed me richly with Your blessings such as the family I am surrounded by. I will always cherish the memories with our daughter and the grandchildren. Thank You for the gifts You have given me and Your love You have shown for me over the years. 

I know You aren't finished with me yet or I would have already been gone. Help me to finish well the race You have marked out for me. Whether I can see the finish line or not ahead of me may I cross it glorifying You Lord. 

Copyright 2015 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing 
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Yo, God. Extra Weight

Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1 Amplified Bible

Once again it was time for my Yo, God class. Picking up the weights I needed I also found the scripture I wanted to use too. It was the one in Hebrews 12 about throwing off the extra weight that easily entangles us. 

As I reached for my weights to lift for my exercise class throwing off extra weight sounded good. "Oh bother Karen" I thought to myself, 'you haven't even got started and you want to throw off the extra weight."

That thought interestingly enough led to another thought. It was obvious my Yo, God class was going to be a success today. My second meditation was the fact that we often find it easy to ditch extra weight physically in what we are holding on to but not spiritually. 

As I went through class I began to try and figure out what extra weight I was holding on to. For some people it's anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, addiction to alcohol or drugs, or other things. We seem to clamp on to these things for all we are worth and refuse to let go long enough to deal with them. 

That is not the way the Bible tells us to handle these things. It says that since we are surrounded by such a great crowd of witnesses we need to do our part. It says we need to, strip off and throw aside  every encumbrance or unnecessary weight. It also tells us to toss aside that sin that we get so easily entangled with. 

Every unnecessary weight, every, not just some but every. We are to toss it aside so quickly it doesn't have a chance to slow us down. With that weight goes the sin that so easily entangles us. The anger that gets us in trouble. The drinking that causes us to hurt others. The bitterness that holds us back and the list goes on. 

With our load lightened we are free to run that race God has set before us. Not the race we choose to run. The race to sin, to living for ourselves not caring about the course God wants us on but the race to be a part of the great cloud of witnesses for Jesus. The place where the swift are found in those un-encumbered by the world's extra weight.  

There's no time to wait. Life is too short and eternity long to weigh ourselves down unnecessarily. Go for the swift. Go for the un-encumbered. Go for Jesus. 

Copyright 2015 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipe Publishing. 



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Yo, God. My Turn to Lift

As I prepared for my morning Yo, God class I began to warm up by slowly lifting my weights. First the right arm then the left, I slowly warmed up to the task at hand. 

In the midst of my warm up the idea of the scripture I wanted to use came to mind. It was a scripture dear to my heart already which I used many times to get me through rough spots. It was Psalms 121:1-3 "I will lift up my eyes to the hills---from whence comes my help? My help comes from The Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber."

As I lifted my weights ever so slowly at first I thought of lifting my eyes to the hills. In the area where I live we are surrounded by gorgeous mountain ranges. Big ones, small ones, some that are snow-capped and others that are not. It's not the mountains themselves that I look to but the one who created them. As I look to them I am reminded of what we both have in common. It is the fact we share the same creator. 

It is to our Creator we lift our eyes. At first, like the weights in my hand we might start out slow but with time we become much faster. The more we practice the better we become at lifting our eyes to God as we come to realize He is our helper. A helper who never slumbers nor sleeps. 

As with the weights in our hands, we are lifting, are there to help us so is God spiritually. The thing about the two of them is the fact that some lifting is required. The weights will do us no good if we don't lift them frequently. The same with our eyes. If we don't frequently lift them to God and acknowledge who God is, our helper, it does us no good. 

Too often we are the ones who are at slumber or rest not God. We slack off on our task at hand which is to lift our eyes to God. We get busy lifting our eyes to a new car, a movie we love to watch, money, drugs, alcohol, or other false idols and it drives us away from where we need to be. 

We fail to acknowledge it is often our turn to lift that which does us the most good and that's our eyes. The first thing in good communication is eye contact. Many of us have heard it from our parents when they were trying to talk to us or scold us saying, "look me in the eye when I am talking to you."

This is all God is asking of us. To look Him in the eye. We don't need the view of the snow or the green and brown terrain. We need to look at the Creator of this wondrous artwork, God himself. 

Praise be to the one who never sleeps. Praise be to He who is the Creator of all.

 Love you God and thanks for never slumbering. Indeed it is my turn to lift. 

Copyright Jan 2015 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

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