Yo, God Class

Class today leads us to pray without ceasing as we exercise our minds, spirit and body. Eventually the physical exercise may end but praying without ceasing must go on.

As we learn to pray we need to treat it as a new exercise. One we may only be able to do it for a moment or two at first like my elliptical exercise I do. However, with time and persistence I plan to last longer but it's going to take awhile. Same with prayer.

Therefore, let class begin as once more Yo, God leads us to pray without ceasing to:

•be thankful to God no matter what happens
•have the fruit of the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,
•live and walk by the Spirit
•have the ability to bring out the best in people
•be cheerful no matter what
•not suppress the Spirit
•be steady and determined in my faith despite hard times
•have God make me fit for whatever He has called me to do
•live my life to honor God forever
•have a clean mind, holy meditation, and a controlled tongue
•know wisdom and instructions and perceive the words of understanding
•be wise enough to hear and increase my learning
•have a peace of mind and strengthened spirit




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Yo God

Some of the best things to meditate on when we are exercising our body are things that will exercise our spiritual lives as well. The following are statements from the 16th and 17th century from the Puritans who were really in to giving God the glory and praise due His name. They were also good at self-reflection and taking at look at themselves and see what needed to be fixed, what was good, what could be added and so much more.

So think about these things as we reach out to say once more, "Yo, God....."

•Teach me to praise, adore, and magnify Thee with the music of Heaven and make me a perfume of praiseful gratitude to Thee.


•Help me walk the separated life with firm and brave steps and to wrestle successfully against weakness.


•Give me the power to live as Thy child in all my actions and to exercise sonship by conquering self.


•Lead me safely on to the eternal kingdom, not asking whether the road be rough or smooth.

Yo, God Class~~~~~~God is my hiding place

God is my hiding place, He will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance Psalm 32:7 Today as I grabbed for my weights to do my daily exercises the scripture I brought with me to class was the one from Psalm 32:7. As I lifted my weights one by one I reflected on the fact that God was my hiding place where He protected me from trouble and surrounded me with songs of deliverance. With each bending of my elbows stretching out the weights in my hands I reflected on the fact that God wasn’t there to keep me away from trouble. He was there to protect me from the trouble I face. The fact that He was my hiding place wasn’t a place to keep from dealing with life. It was a place where it made it easier to deal with the things going on in my life. Truly what I learned in this minute meditation was something that was going to go with me throughout the day to help tone my life. Knowing I have a place of safety where rest and peace is found is wonderful. It was something far more of a blessing to reflect upon than the negative things in life that like to add only flab to your Christian body. “Yo, God’ Thanks for being my hiding place. My place where I can always dwell.’ I love you, Lord.”

Yo God

Recently when I was at a women's retreat speaking on my journey with stress seizures a lady talked to me about her Yoga class. She was real pleased with the results and she enjoyed the relaxing meditation time she got from it. After the retreat I got to thinking about it as well. One day as I sat at my desk I started thinking about the importance of meditation on God's scriptures. Since my cancer doctor is always asking me if I am exercising I began to wonder if I could put the two together.

It was here that I thought of the phrase "yo God." As I grabbed my five pound weights I started to stretch out my arms in various motions as I meditated on a scripture I pulled out of my Bible to feed upon. It was very relaxing to go slow in my arm movements as well as in my meditation of the scripture in order to benefit from both.

What started as a one time experiment has turned into a daily routine. One that I do daily and whenever I feel my spirit in the need of getting back on track. It has been a way to focus on what is important in order to escape the stress and strain of the world.

Doing these one minute mediations and muscle toning that both have lasting affects has been great. After all our minds were designed to meditate on things, why not make it something beneficial for both our spiritual and physical side of life.

Come with me as we attend our "Yo God" class and reap the benefits of what we are willing to sow.

Pray hard

Growing Beyond~~~~95 Days till Easter Days 85-87

Growing Beyond    Day 87              Jan 3, 2013       Man-Made Rules

On this day I need to concentrate on getting rid of all the man-made rules that hinder my success. Rules such as: 1) I need to eat when everyone else eats, 2) I need to clean my plate even though I’m already satisfied, 3) the clock tells me when to eat, and 4) food gives me comfort when I need it.

Truly when spiritual issues and sensual indulgence are not tackled or addressed and redirected using the good news of Jesus Christ, then all we have are man-made rules. It’s hard to understand how we will follow a man made rule in a heartbeat but ignore the rules set out by God.

Why is it we are so willing to self-destruct using man-made rules and ignore the things designed to give us life not take it away which are the rules of God. Too often people think the Bible is outdated that the rules shouldn’t apply to the current century. Well let me ask you, “How long ago did man make up the rule that if you murder someone you will be convicted and stand the possibility of being put to death yourself?” That is an old rule made in an earlier century therefore it should be considered to be outdated. Right? Wrong!

As much as we would like to believe that rules were meant to be broken they aren’t. They are there for a reason but we need to make sure we are following all the right rules when it comes to our eating habits or our spiritual lives. God’s way is better than any man-made rule that ever could have been designed. Therefore its up to us to stay away from the man-made rules that have only lead to our self-destruction and follow God’s design of eating right. Rules such as: 5) eating when you are hungry not when the clock says to; 4) eating till you are satisfied not until the plate is empty; 3) getting my comfort from God instead of chocolate covered donut I thought was my friend; and 2) Eating when its right for me not when its right for everyone who happens to be eating at the time.

The number one rule: 1) Allow God to rule in my life, to have control over me instead of food and my desire to eat it whenever I want.

 

 

Growing Beyond    Day 86     Jan 4, 2013                    Desire for Extra Food

Whether I want to admit it or not I need to get rid of my evil desire for extra food. No, evil is not too harsh of a word as it really does describe it well. Just because I love something I’m eating doesn’t mean I need to eat more of it than I should. When I allow food to call my name and eat beyond what my body needs that is, evil. It goes against God’s plan for me to wait for my body to call for food and tell me when it’s time to stop.

I won’t die if I pass the opportunity for a maple bar donut. The extra helping of scalloped potatoes I think I need really doesn’t do a thing for me except round my hips out a little more.

 

I need to live my life taking in the food my body needs, not the extra my mind wants.

 

Growing Beyond    Day 85   Jan 5, 2013              Self-Control and Self-Discipline

Ten days into my 95 days till Easter journey and I am now thinking of self-control. Duh! The whole journey is about self-control and self-discipline. It’s almost a test to see if the spirit of God is alive and strong in me. Or maybe what I should say is it’s a test to see if I am going to listen to the spirit of God in me to use His eating system designed in me from the moment of conception. 

 

The extra rolls of fat on my belly, the added weight showing up on the scales shows just out of control I am when it comes to eating. My eating habits are at their worse and my body advertises that as I jiggle when I walk. I have no one else to blame but myself. McDonald’s is not to blame; it wasn’t Burger Kings fault I got fat. Dunkin Donuts had no clue of my intensions to over eat and carry with me on my hips the extra calories I consumed.

 

As much as we would like to blame everyone else, we are to blame. We are the ones who need to learn the dying art of self-control and self-discipline. This doesn’t apply to food only. It is something that needs to be practiced in everything we do. In our handling of money, the desire to do drugs, the way we treat others, studying for a school exam, coming to work daily on time, and the list goes on and on.

 

Now is the time for us to start controlling our own lives and stop allowing food or our emotions and desires to control us.

 

95 day journey till Easter ~~~~~ Days 90 to 88

Day 88       Jan 2, 2013       It’s me not the food that needs to behave

One thing I’ve learned over the years is the fact that it’s not the food that needs to be obedient. Too often we try to give the task of being obedient to the kind of food we eat. After all it should be the one who behaves as we do our part and eat all the “right” things, whole wheat, all natural, diet drinks, fat free, or whatever else. Needless to say if we eat more of those “right” foods than our body can burn up we are going to gain weight anyway. Once when I was on a fat free diet I figured I could eat whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted as long as it was “fat free.” Guess what? Yes you guessed it, I gained weight.

 

The food was being obedient but I wasn’t. On diets we’ve had success with often once we lose our weight and stop dieting we gain our weight back. Why is this? It’s frequently because we haven’t taught ourselves to be the one who obeys God’s rules for healthy eating by eating when we are hungry and stopping when we are satisfied.   

 

It doesn’t matter what food we eat. We can eat a candy bar if our stomach is truly hungry and we stop when satisfied. However, it’s always smart to eat the food that is best for us nutrition wise such as vegetables and fresh food but don’t think it’s the one that needs to be obedient. Obedience to proper eating habits is our job. We are the ones who need to behave not the food.

 

Day 89          Jan 1, 2013     God’s Word In Action

A good task for anything we do is to keep God’s word in our heart. This is how I conquered my stress seizures over 20 years ago and this is how I can defeat my weight problem. Scriptures such as “I can do all things (lose weight included) thru Christ who gives me strength (Phil 4:13). God’s grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:9) I don’t need food to complete me or my life. My body is a temple of God (1 Cor 6:19,20) I need to take care of it and use it to glorify God not disgrace Him by my choice of eating habits. Earlier in that same chapter in Corinthians it talks about how we may think all things are lawful for us but all things are not helpful and we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be under the power of any of it. It goes on to say food is for the stomach and the stomach for food but eventually God will destroy both.

 

The ice cream I thought I needed, the fulfillment lasted about as long as the ice cream bar did. Once it was gone it all was gone including the satisfaction. What I need to do is concentrate on the fact that what remains is my spiritual temple I’ve been assigned caretaker to. It is the thing that will last forever and it’s up to me to see to it that it is cared for properly. It doesn’t require ice cream, pie, cookies, or extra food servings. It requires care, nurturing, attention, and the proper feeding of spiritual food instead. It entails me to allow God’s word to be in action in all that I say, do, and eat.

Day 90    12-31-12   The Fight Against Frustration

In attempt to do anything in life whether it’s dieting, going to college, working, training horses, riding cows, building bridges, etc we will always run into some kind of frustration. Recently as I weighed myself to see if I had lost any weight the scale went up instead of down.

 

Instant frustration could be felt over the fact that all my hard work wasn’t paying off. At the rate I was going I might as well quit now instead of trying to go on. The same old tape recordings in my mind began to play once more, “this is the way it always is, and no matter how hard I try I just can’t seem to lose weight so why bother!”

At the risk of trying to lie to myself along with everyone else I truly wasn’t trying. My ratio of efforts was reflecting on the very scale I stood upon as I pointed my finger at it yelling “liar, liar!”

 

When we lie to ourselves we are only adding to our frustration instead of taking away from it. Frustration is grown on the root of stress and it needs dealt with properly like everything else. Yes, life has its frustrations but that is no excuse to yell and scream and point our fingers at everyone else without looking at what the true problem is.

 

Frustration has a way of setting us back but we don’t have to give ourselves permission to stay there and make matters worse. Its better we stand upright once again and keep moving forward stronger and better as we overcome each of life’s frustrations and setbacks one day at a time.

 

© 2013 Karen J. Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing for Growing Beyond