Anybody who doesn't believe God speaks directly to His children's hearts at times needs to have their spiritual head examined. What kind of a Father would never take the time to speak words of comfort, exhortation, reproof and encouragement? What kind of a Father would never stoop down and communicate directly with His son or daughter?

I believe with all my heart that God does in fact communicate with us via His Holy Spirit within us. This communication doesn't necessarily mean loud trumpets and huge jumbo movie screens; it can (and usually is) but a still small voice speaking directly to our hearts.

This morning I was doing some work outside and all of a sudden the pain in my toe alerted me to the fact that I had dropped a gate on it. It hurt for a few minutes and then subsided. A short time later as I was putting down a large wooden post, I felt a "pop" in my lower back and pain. I finished what I was doing and decided it was too dangerous for me to be outside working.

When I took off my shoe I was astounded at the amount of blood all over my foot from when I had dropped the gate on my toe. After cleaning up and doing some computer work, I was just sitting there when out of the blue I felt an urgent need to call my primary care doctor's office and schedule an appointment as soon as one was available. I left about an hour later to make the long drive into town to see him.

He took one look at my toe and lamented about how bad it looked. After scolding me for not getting in to see him last week, he gave me a cortisone shot for my back and an antibiotic shot for my toe. Since I was to see the foot doctor on Thursday, he reluctantly sent me home.

As I was approaching the exit to our little town I felt an overwhelming sense that I should exit and go to the foot doctor's office and make sure the doctor could treat me on Thursday. My regular doctor was out of town so her partner agreed to look at my toe. She took one look at it, gasped and flat out told me that the toenail had to come off immediately due to the amount of infection involved. I was given no choice in the matter. It had to be done right then.

The doctor numbed up the area and proceeded to take off the nail. She said I was lucky for the infection was bad would have caused me major problems if allowed to continue to hide under the nail. In so many words, she told me I was one very lucky man to have caught her at 5:00 on a day she is not normally in the office.

Was this day just a set of "lucky" coincidences? I refuse to believe that was the case. I know that my God talks to me and I know He specifically told me to call my doctor and get in to see him TODAY. Since I obeyed and did just that, God was then able to direct my steps to where I really needed to go which was the foot doctor. And, because I had received the antibiotic shot earlier, the foot doctor could do the procedure without worrying about causing more problems with infection.

Sometimes God does speak in a loud booming "God voice". Most of the time He simply works His will in our heart so that we just "know" what we are to do. Regardless of how God communicates with you, never ever doubt that He can and will let you know things. As our loving Heavenly Father He wants nothing more than for us, His kids, to be blessed and taken care of. He will, in turn, let us know what we need to do so He can bless us.

Yes, I have fought with pain much of this day and especially this evening. Yes, I have had to take some pills to help me deal with it (I am a man and we men don't handle pain very well many times). But, as I sit here right now, I am the most thankful guy in town for I know beyond any doubt that my God loved me enough today to perhaps spare me from a VERY UGLY situation. As I love to say at times such as now;
GOD IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COOL!

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