I’m needing a perspective adjustment this morning.  Life is pressing in, a tangible weight that slows my pace and draws my gaze from the only place it needs to be set.

We got home last night from a few days spent visiting family.  It was a good few days.  I love my parents and my brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.  But the stirring up of that deep affection always brings with it twinges of heartache.  Nothing’s perfect, and it can be hardest to see the needs in the lives of those you love while feeling helpless to make anything better.

And today, everything else is crowding in.  The little things…piles of laundry, a sparse refrigerator, an interrupted routine, aches and pains that make me feel way older than I am.  And the big things…heart wounds, fears of failure, struggles with a sin nature.  It all makes me want to give up, to blame God, to be convinced that there’s nothing good in any of it.

So I ask God for help, and He reminds me – Jesus is the answer.

Because of Jesus, I can come boldly before the throne of grace when I am in need of mercy and grace.

Because of Jesus, I have confidence that there is hope for those I love, even when I feel helpless.

Because of Jesus, I can find freedom from fear, knowing that the God who defeated the grave is able to do immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine.

Because of Jesus, I can trust that God sees all of me – every sin, every failure, every weakness…as well as every bit of me that is unlovely and awkward and not even close to being right…and loves me unconditionally.

Because of Jesus, I can face today knowing that God is with me.  And God is for me.

Jesus is the answer – for today and always.