How To Face The Facts While Still Trusting God

Life is full of decisions. Some of these decisions are shoot the breeze easy kind of decisions while some are more difficult and heartfelt.

Facing the facts of our choices in life is not easy and I don’t think anyone would ever say that it is. It’s extremely difficult to sit down and think about your decisions and the circumstances surrounding or driving your decisions.

There’s a guy in the Bible that had to face the obvious facts in his life – this guy is named Abraham. Abraham had a promise from God that he and his wife Sarah were going to have a child but their current circumstances didn’t support that promise. This story is originally found in the book of Genesis but I want to look at how it’s retold in the book of Romans.

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. (Romans 4:19)

When Abraham looked at the facts, they didn’t support what God has told him. The facts didn’t make sense. A hundred years old!! How is that even possible?

Abraham did the right thing though – he faced the obvious natural facts. He took a look around him at his circumstances and saw what was true. It’s the same thing we should do when making decisions in our lives. We should always look at the natural and ask “what’s true around us?” There’s a difference between asking this question and not trusting God.

Facing the facts is not the same as doubting God.

Facing the facts just means you are being wise and chasing down the decisions that are in front of you. Just because Abraham realized what was obvious, doesn’t mean he didn’t believe. I heard someone say one time “never be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.”

Sometimes, honestly, when we do stop and look at the facts we will save ourselves from making poor choices in life. But, there’s another element here that Abraham did that can help us. He not only faced the facts, but he also chose to keep trusting God to do the supernatural.

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:20-21)

Abraham believed with all of his heart that God was going to keep his promise to give him and Sarah a child. Even when everything told him it wasn’t going to happen, he chose to keep believing. Because Abraham kept trusting God to come through and do something supernatural, he saw the promise happen. Abraham and Sarah had a child!

It’s okay to stop and see the obvious like Abraham, but it takes faith to say “even though the facts don’t support this, I’m still going to place my hope in Jesus to make this happen.”

We can’t let what’s factual keep us from trusting God to do the supernatural.

Application:

1. Look at the facts

When you have a choice to make, take a good hard look at the facts. By doing this, you could potentially save yourself from making a very poor choice. Should I date this person even though they are not trying to follow Jesus and will pull me in the wrong direction? Should I buy another car? Should I make this purchase? Should I go on this trip? Should I keep ignoring what I know is right?

2. Trust God to come through

The key in this is to realize what’s from God and what’s from you. If it’s from God and he’s nudging you to make this decision than you can look at the facts and trust him to come through. If there’s something in your life that God has put deep down inside of you that you know he has told you, don’t lose hope of it happening! He may have told you that you will start a non-profit someday, that you will have a child someday like Abraham or that maybe you will start a church someday. God may be going to bring it to pass a different way than what you thought.

Don’t ever let current circumstances stop you from trusting God to move. Yes, it’s wise to look at the facts, but it’s also unwise to let facts solely drive decisions.

Reflect:

• What has God promised you? Does scripture back this up?
• Where do you sense him leading you?
• Will this decision in front of you bring you closer to Jesus or take you in a different direction?
• Have you looked at the facts and taken it to Jesus?