Yesterday we focused on the impact that feeling could have on our decision-making process. It can lead to wrong decisions. Today we look at how facts can influence us to make the wrong decisions. Facts can also sometimes weaken our faith. Instead of trusting God, we believe the facts more than what God’s word says.
The following parable is a great example of where the facts led to the wrong decision. “There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs. He put up signs on the highway telling how good they were. He stood on the side of the road and cried; “buy a hot dog, mister? And people bought. He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He finally got his son home from college to help him out. But then something happened.
His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio? Haven’t you been reading the newspapers? There’s a big depression. The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse.” Where upon the father thought, “well, my son’s been to college, he reads the papers and he listens to the radio, and he ought to know.”
So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs. And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight. “You’re right, son” the father said to the boy. “We certainly are in the middle of a great depression.” – John C Maxwell
Sometimes facts can cause you to lose hope, give up, or even doubt. Facts can arise in your life that can cause you even to doubt God, His word and His promises.
In the Bible, we also read about the story of Abraham and Sarah. God made a promise to Abraham that God would give him a son. The fact was that both Abraham and Sarah were unable to have children, but they believed the word of God. They ignored the facts and put their trust in God and had a baby when he was 100 and Sarah was 90.
Hebrews 11:11-12 (MSG) By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That’s how it happened that from one man’s dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.
Hebrews 6:13-18(MSG) When God made his promise to Abraham, he backed it all the way, putting his own reputation on the line. He said, “I promise that I’ll bless you with everything I have – bless and bless and bless!” Abraham stuck it out and got everything that had been promised to him. When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they’ll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up. When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee – God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchezedek.
I conclude with: “When the facts say trouble is down the road, when the facts say the future is bleak, when the facts say I will never get a job, when the facts say nothing good can come out of this, when the facts say there is no way I can get out of the mess I’ve made, when the facts say all of the odds are against me, choose to put and keep your trust in God because, with God, nothing is impossible.” – Gilbert Owens