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

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.