All the Answers

Hey there, and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled All The Answers was written by Tim Gustafson. Dale Earnhardt Jr. describes the awful moment he understood his father was gone. Motor racing legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. had just been killed in a horrific car crash at the end of the Daytona 500, a race in which Dale Earnhardt Jr. had also participated. There's this noise coming out of me that I can't recreate, said the young Earnhardt. It's this bellow of shock and sorrow and fear. And then the lonely truth.

I'm going to have to do this by myself. Having Dad was like having a cheat sheet, Earnhardt Jr. explained. Having Dad was like knowing all the answers. Jesus' disciples had learned to look to Him for all the answers. Now, on the eve of His crucifixion, He assured them He wouldn't leave them alone.

I will ask the Father, Jesus said in John 14, and He will give you another Advocate to help you, and be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. Jesus extended that comfort to all who would believe in Him. Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching, He said.

My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Those who choose to follow Christ have within them the Spirit who teaches them all things and reminds them of everything Jesus taught. We don't have all the answers, but we have the Spirit of the One who does.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from John 14, verses 15-26. If you love Me, keep My commands, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you, and be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me.

Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them and show Myself to them. Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Anyone who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own, they belong to the Father who sent Me. All this I have spoken while still with you, but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, teach us to hear You speaking, and lead us by Your Spirit.

Help us to trust You when we don't have all the answers, and we don't know what to do. Fill us with Your peace. Thank You, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen Tabor, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.