“Listening to God is essential to walking with God.” Charles Stanley
For a moment, act like a fly on the wall. You’re listening to a conversation between a father and his daughter.
“Daddy, why do we need to talk to God?”
“Good question. Before I answer, allow me to ask you one, okay?”
“Okay daddy.”
“Would you say that we have a great relationship?”
“Oh yes, daddy.”
“Why is that, do you think?”
“Oh that’s easy daddy. You listen. We talk. We do all sorts of things together.”
There was a huge, dramatic pause as she began to realizing she already had her answer.
“You tricked me!” She said while playfully hitting his arm.
“No, I just wanted you to see that you already had the answer. You can’t get close to someone if you don’t hang out and share with them.”
This fly on the wall has been having lots of conversations with his Father these past 18 days of battling Covid. During many of nights of the battle, if you were a fly on the wall of my room, you could hear me cry out, “Father, won’t you please stop this pain and heal me? You can suck out of my body every bit of this virus that’s wreaking havoc on me.”
“Yes, I can. But, My grace is sufficient for you.”
That was it, but I knew what He meant. I’d heard that line before. I’ve never personally experienced God do an instantaneous miracle – either physical or spiritual (out and out change my life).
He’s always used the biblical process of life change He created in Scripture (the FREEdom process). I know this day to day process of trusting Him and His Word quite intimately. He had me write a book about it.
His grace was definitely sufficient to cover my responses to His response. His grace was sufficient to cover my cries of struggle with Covid symptoms.
His grace has been sufficient to get me to other side of these symptoms; and, it will be sufficient to keep me going as I recover from their side effects.
I know. I’ve been down this road before. And until I see Jesus face to face, I know I’ll go down other roads where I’ll hear, “I love you son, and My grace is sufficient for you.”

Let your faith flourish!
Jesus’ teachings drew the hurting while ticking off the religious establishment.
Jesus went where it wasn’t kosher for a Jewish Rabbi to go in order to reach those hurting. He touched a leper, a dead person and went so far as to let a hemorrhaging woman touch Him. He even had a conversation at a local drinking establishment with a woman!
Jesus said it was never a bad day to do something good for someone, even if that day was the Sabbath.
In times like ours, listening to and following Jesus is crucial. There are people who are hurting and need Jesus. How can they hear unless someone is around them, even with possible Covid exposure?
What if Jesus told you to go? Would your theology be challenged? Do you believe that you are going to leave this planet someday, but not a moment before its God’s time for you to go?
We all have more room to grow when it comes to getting out of the boat to walk on water. So, allow the Spirit to grow your faith.
There are people outside your bubble that need your faith to grow so theirs can begin.

Begin and end your day with a grateful heart.
Jesus tells His followers to always be thankful. Yup. He doesn’t say everything we face will be awesome. He does say that we have Someone awesome walking with us.
This is why knowing Jesus, not merely facts about Him, is so important. Knowing Him from experience is what puts a smile on your face even when its hard. He is the reason we give thanks.
Sometimes this thanks will be from past experiences. At other times, giving thanks will be by faith because you need to experience something new about Him.
Jesus is awesome. Get to know Him. You can’t help but be grateful when you do.

God didn’t dry up the Red Sea, He parted it.
There are coins on the ground almost everywhere I take my power walks. I pick them up and put them in a jar on my dresser. Every time I see the jar, it reminds me of God’s faithfulness and provision.
When the jar gets full, I take it to a coin machine to exchange for cash. Yet, some of these coins are so scuffed up that even the machine can’t recognize them!
I can either put those coins back in the jar, which makes them unusable; or, I can exchange them for new ones at the bank.
Life scratches all of us. You can either put yourself in the jar of life, never making the difference Jesus recreated you to do. Or, you can let the Spirit exchange your old worthless non-eternal character with Jesus’ powerful eternal character.
Your scratches, when exchanged with Jesus, are stories to tell of a God who not only is loving and faithful, but patient and full of grace.
Let your God change your life. That’s what a healthy Jesus follower does. Your life will get better; and, so will those hearing the Jesus story you have to tell.
You can become like and share Jesus. Make the Great Exchange…today.

“Roddie’s Code: choose right, oppose wrong, dignify life, and esteem everyone.”
You’ve lived for Jesus all your life. You’ve chosen to “want to be near Him” more than anything else in life. You read and live out the scriptures as your faith grows.
Then WWII erupts. You enlist. You make your way up the chain to become a Master Sargent. When you finally enter combat, you become part of Nazi Germany’s last major offensive – the infamous Battle of the Bulge.
This is the first combat experience for both you and your men. You become surrounded. With no way out, you and what’s left of your men surrender.
As a POW, you’re fed sawdust filled black bread. You’re surviving on 500 calories a day. After 90 days, you’re truly a living skeleton.
Then the moment comes. You say you love Jesus. The One who said, “If you love Me, you will obey Me. And love your neighbor as yourself.”
You are the highest ranking officer in the camp. You are told to only have Jews fall out, while the rest of your men are to remain in their barracks. By this time, stories of what Germans have done to Jews have begun to spread. What do you do?
Roddie Edmonds, age 24, had every single man of his almost 1,300 Americans fall out. The German commandant was outraged. He only wanted the Jews. So, what do you say to the man who points a loaded Luger at your forehead and says, “I only want the Jews.”
Roddie replied, “Sir, we are all Jews here.” The commandant walked away in disgust. Roddie saved 200 lives, who happened to be American soldiers of Jewish decent. He acted on a code that Jesus gave him.
You don’t have to be perfect to do something extraordinary. You just need to act on what you say you believe. Be hero. Love Jesus.