Is Jesus the Answer?

I wanted to share an excerpt from a book I recently read called Core Christianity by Michael Horton. 

"Jesus isn't just the answer to our questions; he gives us better questions.  It's not that our needs are unimportant, it's that they're so shortsighted.  We don't know what we really need.  Our immediate problems are not necessarily our deepest or our most serious.  We focus on the symptoms because they are right in front of us.  And they are real:  loneliness, abandonment, guilt, fear, depression, broken relationships, and financial or health issues.  But Jesus Christ is the answer to the deeper and wider problems that we all face.  He did not come just to give us our best life now.  He came to give us eternal life.  He came to free us from the curse of death and hell and the tyranny of those habits that poison our relationship with God and others." 
(Horton, Michael.  Core Christianity. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016)

I love the first line.  Jesus is not just the answer to our questions, He gives us better questions to ask!  It is interesting because most of us are trained to be inherently selfish and centered solely on our own needs and wants and we have a hard time differentiating the two.  In fact, some things that we call needs are not needs at all.  When we were shopping for a house we made a list of things we "needed".  Maybe you have done something similar.  On that list we had multiple bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, a garage etc.  These are not needs and many people around the world would scoff at what I called a need. 

Jesus refocuses my life.  He gives me a new perspective.  He does not just make my perspective a little better He calls me to total surrender and demands that I hear and listen to His perspective.  He calls my views of my own life and needs not only inadequate, but sinful and demands that I change.  So often we get this all backward.  We find ourselves content with our own understanding of the world and our own emotional responses to situations.  We learn to trust a great deal in ourselves and when our world turns upside down we turn to those things we have learned to rely upon.  And God comes and tells us we are doing it all wrong.  We should not turn to strength, but revel in our own weakness that God's power is manifested.  We should not trust in horses and chariots, but trust in the name of the Lord our God. We should not lean on our own understanding but always acknowledge God and understand that His ways are higher (and better) than ours!

God help me to ask better questions and realize all of the answers that you have already given me in Jesus!