ARE YOU ANGRY WITH GOD?

Growing up in a reformed church, we were very much educated to "fear God or else". 😳Only, nobody explained to us what that fear really meant..., so we naturally concluded, in our little minds, that it meant "to be scared of God and that He will punish you if you put one little foot wrong". That is, of course, what the church wanted us to believe, so we would behave, 😂. With this perspective in mind, there was simply no allowance for ever being angry with God - at least not out in the open. So, sadly, many lived with hidden grudges, never finding peace in the living years and never discovering true relationship with a God that is way more understanding than the church would allow us to believe...😢

In more recent years, the church have evolved in their understanding regarding what the fear of God is about and started to teach that we can and should express our feelings of anger toward God. Having read many articles that encouraged the expression of this anger, I allowed myself, at some point in my life, to feel that it was legitimate to be angry with God, and thus I threw every single one of my proverbial toys out of the cot! 😆

When I look back now on that pitiful scene, I almost cringe at my lack of respect toward such a mighty (yet merciful) God...

See, the modern understanding of the fear of God unfortunately took us over the edge of the opposite extreme: instead of being afraid of God, we suddenly allowed ourselves to become a little bit too comfortable with Him, to the point of losing our reverence and respect for Him! Yes, He is our Papa, but He is also the Great God Jehovah! Wisdom would be to find the true meaning of fear somewhere in between these two extremes...

This is maybe a good moment to define what the true meaning of fearing God is. The Passion Translation's version of Proverbs 8:13 makes it very easy to understand:

"Wisdom pours into you when you begin to hate every form of evil in your life, for that’s what worship and fearing God is all about."

So fearing God is hating evil... Hmmmm... Most Christians will immediately affirm without the least hesitation that they hate evil,... but let's do a quick checklist, shall we?

Do we hate... lust, slander, jealousy, stinginess, loose morals, cheating, dishonesty, unfaithfulness, substance abuse, and the like? Or do we tolerate some measure of it in our lives because, after all, we are only human...? If you tolerate anything that God says is evil, then you do not fear (respect, have awe for) God, which also means that you don't have wisdom. As a matter of fact, since fearing God is only the BEGINNING of wisdom... yikes!😬

Now I want to ask you a question. Do you think that you have the right to be angry with God? (And I'm asking you this question as someone who has been there and done that, so I have no lack of compassion whatsoever!)

To explore the answer,lets time-travel back to Eden, to just after the fall of man. Now remember, up to that point in time, Adam had lived in perfect unity with God, as His friend!

So here we are, witnessing the scene and the first thing that happens after man commits sin, is that he loses his spiritual perception in favour of a fallen, physical perception:

 Then the eyes of the two of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

GENESIS 3:7 (NIV)

You see, in the instant of sinning, the glory and honour that God had crowned man with (Psalms 8:5), fell away, leaving him spiritually naked, but because man's perception now favoured the flesh rather than the spirit, his first reaction was to cover up the flesh, instead of repenting of his spiritual condition!

So, God goes on to confront Adam with his sin and, instead of confessing and repenting, Adam replies:

“The woman whom You gave to be with me—she gave me [fruit] from the tree, and I ate it.” (GENESIS 3:12 AMP)

Do you notice that Adam's first reaction is one of anger toward God? The very gift from God that he used to treasure, his wife, had no become a snare to him and in his fallen eyes it is all God's fault! Isn't that exactly what we do, too?

Can you understand now that anger directed at God is always a reaction that the flesh generates to divert the attention from our own faults and misconceptions and from the true culprit, the devil!? It is born of the flesh, not of the spirit and therefore anger at God can never be justifiable!

Our modern society has convinced us that we have every right to be angry with God. The problem is that, when we fall for that, we immediately open a door to pride. We are, in fact, putting ourselves above God, saying: I know better than You. If you think about it, we walk right into the devil's trap! How stupid is that?!

If you feel angry with God right now, I want to say to you that I do understand that it is born from a place of great pain and sorrow..., but no matter how you paint the picture, it will never be God's fault. If you hold on to the conviction that it is, you will simply never get better. That is the bottom line.

The message of hope that I want to give you now is that there is a solution for every single human condition, from fear, to sadness, from bitterness to brokenness: it is to submit to God and say: "You are God, you know best. I'm sorry for allowing anger to distract me and draw me away from You. I surrender all of my thoughts and feelings to you right now."

Yes, it may not please man that this is God's way, but it is. And it works.

God is not waiting to tell you "I told you so". No. He isn't like that. He is simply waiting for a sign that you are returning to Him, and as soon as He sees you move, He will come running to embrace you and bring you into His home of healing and peace and joy. 😊