Feelings, Facts, or Faith
(How should we live?)
People say that we are a divided nation. I agree. The question for us is very simple. Why are we divided? There are numerous reasons, but I believe that we can boil our division down to three reasons that must be reconciled.
The first reason we are divided is because of feelings. People have very strong feelings about the various issues that divide us. How we feel about certain issues compel us to take our stand there. The problem with this course of living is that our feelings are extremely subjective. They can change for better or worse. Our feelings are determined by various stimuli from life. They are influenced by our upbringings. They are influenced by our affiliations, our friends, families, and constituents. Our feelings are influenced by what we think about ourselves. Our life experiences play a big part in how we feel about certain issues. The list of influences that affects our feelings may be too numerable to count. The differences in our feelings about certain issues are so varied that we cannot help but be divided. The truthful facts about our feelings are driven by our flesh, that part of us that is predisposed to sin. It is that drive in us to ignore what is right, good, or best so that how or what we feel can be satisfied.
The next thing that divides us is facts. What are the facts surrounding the thing that divides us? How do we feel about the facts? Are the facts accurate? If so, what should be our proper response to those facts? Sometimes because the facts are accurate, we don’t like them so we try to ignore them because of how we feel. Sometimes we differ on the right way to respond to facts, or we respond in certain ways simply because we don’t have the right facts. I heard this saying from a fellow worker about facts relating to data. “Data doesn’t lie but liars do data.” So facts can be used to deceive us if they are inaccurate. Facts can be depressing if they are not good even though they may be true, causing people to ignore them because of the depressing feeling we get because of them.
Then there is faith. For this short exposition I’m referring to faith in God’s word. This faith starts with believing in who God is and what He has done for us in Christ Jesus. This faith begins with faith in all that Jesus did on the cross to reconcile us to God the Father. It is the kind of faith that realizes that our feelings are orchestrated by our propensity to sin as well as our propensity to misconstrue facts. When this faith is elevated to its highest level in our lives and hearts, it becomes the rubric by which we weigh our feelings, our facts, and the direction we should take in dealing with the various issues. For example is we followed God’s word by faith we wouldn’t be divided on the issue of reparations. Deut 24:16 states, "Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” Our nation is divided on this issue yet faith in God’s word would allow us to learn from the past, make the proper changes and move forward. On the issue of homosexuality we read these words in Lev 20:13. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; While a person may be caught up in this sin, as a nation we do not have to sanction it.
Allow me to give you another staggering fact that divides our nation, poverty. In the African American community over seventy percent of all babies born are born to single parent families. Almost forty-eight percent of all single parent families are in poverty but less than 10 percent of all married families live in poverty. Look at what God’s word says in Gen 2:24-25 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Much of the poverty in America could seriously be diminished if people got married and we promoted marriage instead of facilitating single parenting. So why do we disagree on these as well as others? It comes down to faith or no faith. Faith in God and His word must be the rubric by which we gauge the issues of life. God’s word establishes facts, helps us to rightly adjust our feelings, and strengthens our faith in Him because we get to see the beautiful results of following His words.
So then, how should we live? While our feelings are real and we have the facts, all must be adjusted to agree with God’s word. In doing so God’s word becomes the unifying instrument that heals either a divided nation, a divided family, a divided church, or a divided relationship. So then how will you live in 2023? Will you follow your feelings? Will just look at the facts or will you view all of life through the lens of God’s word? You must make that decision on how you should live, feelings, facts, or faith in God’s word.
Pastor Robinson
