Don’t Let the Facts Scare You!

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 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. 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 4:18-21

Reading this scripture one morning I was hit by the word ‘fact’ in verse nineteen. Without weakening in his faith, Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead….

In another story facing the fact may have meant giving in or giving up but the Bible goes on to tell us that “yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God!”

Walking in faith does not mean being oblivious to the reality of our challenges. Walking in faith means I acknowledge the facts, but I also know and believe in something superior to the facts!

When David faced Goliath, he said that; “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied”. (1 Samuel 17:45)

David saw a giant as everyone else did. He saw his stature, strength, weapons, experience, battle weathered face and yet he was not fazed. Or perhaps we can say that David looked at the giant in the light of His God while the others looked at the giant in the light of themselves. When we compare ourselves to our adversaries, challenges and trials, we can appear as grasshoppers against a giant. But when we see through the eyes of faith, we can see them for what they are, bite-sized in comparison to our God. We see this scenario play out with the twelve spies Moses sent to scout the Promised land. We see two different reports from the same expedition.

This was the report of ten of them:

“But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are too strong for us.”

There we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.””

Numbers 13:31, 33

But Joshua and Caleb were quick to respond from a perspective of faith. They too had scouted the land and they too had seen all it had to offer as well as its potential threats but they were looking at it through eyes of faith based on the promises of Jehovah and so they responded as follows;

“They said to all the people of Israel, “The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land! And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!””

Numbers 14:7-9 NLT

Unfortunately, Joshua and Caleb were outnumbered! The voice of the majorly carried the day! The Israelites responded in fear based on the report of the ten spies and we know where that story ended. Failure to walk in faith led to a forty year delay of their entry to the Promised land. May our fears not truncate our destiny!

Many times the facts we have to deal with are indisputable. King Saul told David that he couldn’t go against Goliath because the latter had been a warrior from his youth. In other words, he has years of experience and you are just a Shepherd boy. Who could argue with that fact? But what Saul did not know was that this was no ordinary shepherd boy, this was one whose hands had been trained for war by God himself! He was a little Shepherd boy with big faith in an Almighty God and so he could declare the outcome of the duel even before he stepped onto the battle ground! David declared exactly how it would end and it came to pass!

He looked past the facts to see the might of the God of Israel who was able to deliver Goliath into his hands. When confronted with challenges may we learn to focus on the faithfulness and power of our God than on the size of the problem!

When King Jehoshaphat faced a serious battle, the facts were that three armies were coming against him and the people of Judah, he was outnumbered! That is when he said to the Lord, “we do not know what to do but our eyes are on you” (2 chronicles 20:12). Jehoshaphat was saying, our eyes are not on the approaching kings, their horses, chariots and military might; our eyes are on you our God who is able to save us! And Jehovah indeed showed up to save them. All they had to do was praise God as they went into battle and by the time they came upon their enemies, the Lord had caused the three armies to rise up against each other! Jehoshaphat and his army merely went in to collect the spoil! You can find the full account in 2 Chronicles 20.

Oh, that we would set our eyes upon the Lord Jesus and His power to deliver us! He will move in defiance of the facts in our lives! If He did it for the dead womb of Sarah, if He turned water to wine, if He raised Lazarus from the dead, if indeed He defied death and the grave and rose in power to take His place at God’s right hand, what else can He not do?

So yes, the facts may be scary, daunting or overwhelming but that doesn’t have to water down our faith! Let’s present the facts to the One who is able to deliver us. Let’s hold onto His Word and trust Him to overshadow the impossible in our lives!

He is ABLE!