When you’re chasing a dream God has given you, you’ll inevitably hit a place where it seems things are out of your control and there’s no way out. Short of a miracle from God, it’s a hopeless situation. You’re in the dead-end phase of God growing your faith.

When you hit a dead end, you need to face the facts with faith.

The worst thing you can do at a dead end is pretend there isn’t a problem. Having faith doesn’t mean you deny reality. Faith isn’t saying, “I’m not in pain” when, in fact, you are. It’s not saying, “I don’t hurt” when you really do. It’s not saying, “I’m happy” when you’re grieving. That’s not faith. That’s phoniness! 

Faith is facing the facts without being disheartened by them, because you know God is greater than the problem. 

There is a brand of Christianity that basically says to deny all of your problems. Just have a positive confession. Name it and claim it. But that kind of thinking doesn’t come from Jesus. It’s more reflective of Pollyanna, a fictional character whose unrealistic view of life only sees the positive while completely ignoring anything negative. Pollyanna is not exactly a good theologian. 

When you have faith, you don’t have to deny reality. Faith is facing reality without being discouraged by it. When you have faith, you know that God can change a situation. 

You can’t build a family on a Pollyanna fantasy—but you can build your family on faith. You can’t build a business on fantasy—but you can build a business on faith. You can’t build a life on fantasy—but you can build your life on faith. 

How do you do that? You look beyond your circumstances: “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen [the problem] is temporary, but what is unseen [God’s power] is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV).

If you look at the world, you’re going to be distressed; there are problems everywhere! If you look within, you’re going to be depressed, because there are a lot of things that need changing in your life. But if you look at Jesus Christ, you’ll be at rest. What you focus on shapes what your reality looks like. 

When you start looking at your problem, you’re sunk. But if you look at Jesus—if you look toward your Deliverer rather than the difficulty—then you’ll make it.