Hi you guys, this is Heidi St. John. Thanks for tuning in today. You have found me at my little

corner of the internet. Today is Thursday, August 20th. This is Off the Bench with Heidi St. John.

Today I've got a quick little shout out devotion for you and a couple of questions from listeners.

Stick around. I think you're going to be encouraged.

So today I'm in the book of Matthew chapter five verse 44, the beginning of that. It says,

I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And if ever there was a time

for us to be doing that, the time is right now. So like many of you guys, my life was altered by

the Rona by COVID-19. I like to call the Rona. You guys heard me talk about this a little bit

yesterday. In fact, I hope you guys don't mind. I'm probably going to keep doing that. It helps my

kids not be so afraid. And I don't like living in fear. So the pandemic has had a devastating

impact on many things. Businesses have been closed. Many of them are never going to reopen again.

In my small hometown, I witnessed the financial loss first hand, but even worse than the loss

of income instability is the emotional toll that seems to be coming with these lockdowns. And so

while we've seen businesses ending, we've also seen friendships ending. We've lost many of us

lost lost faith in pastors and Christian leaders. We're seeing a sifting absolutely taking place

right now kind of things that are just being unearthed, right? Like I said the other day, there's

a sifting happening. And I'm starting to get questions from you guys and letters and you're telling

me that you've been unfriended, that you've been dismissed by your pastors when you bring up questions.

It's not wrong to ask questions. It's wrong to squash discourse. It's wrong to squash conversation.

And so I'm going to be encouraging you guys today with this from the Gospel of Matthew when

when Jesus said, listen, I'm talking to you right now. Love your enemies. Pray for those who

persecute you. This is our role as believers. I've said this many times at the show I'm going to

...