Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 14 verses 25 through 27:
25 "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
"You have everything you need to make it through." That was one of the central messages we heard time and time again from Charlie Johnson, who was Second B's pastor when I was in college. It is appropriate to hear that message time and time again because of the encouragement and hope it brings. In fact, on the last night of Jesus' life, when what he said to his disciples he knew was sure to be remembered, he chose to tell them that they would have everything they need to make it through. God would come. God would provide. God would be their source of consolation and strength.
And to hear those words, to take them to heart, and to truly believe them to be true is to enter into the mystery of serenity only God and trust in God can give. It is to no longer be troubled in spirit or afraid of what is to come, but to fall into the arms of God's everlasting peace. To know we have everything we need is to know we have God, who is everything we need.
There is an old hymn, written in 1847 by Henry Francis Lyte, who was dying of tuberculosis as he composed, and sung a century later by nurse Edith Cavell the night before she was executed by German soldiers for helping British soldiers escape from Belgium during WWI.
"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me."
The Lord with us abides; and in the end that is everything we need -- even if it's the only thing we have.
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