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

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