By: Annagail Lynes
“Why did God allow September 11th?” “Why does God allow the kids in Ethiopia to starve?” “Why does God allow people to die from cancer?”
I hear these excuses all the time. Excuses about why a person doesn’t want to turn their lives over to God. And all these questions are is a cry for help. A cry that signifies the person deep down is mad at God.
Mad at God for letting their brother die. Mad at God for allowing them to grow up in an abusive home. Mad at God because they don’t feel they are pretty enough, good enough, talented enough. No matter what the reason, they are mad at God.
Have you ever been there? Something goes wrong in your life, and you automatically blame God. “Why did you allow this to happen to me,” you scream into the air. Your hands clenched.
At one time or another, we have all been mad at God. I know I was very angry with Him when my grandfather died. I was angry with Him when my fiancé broke up with me. I was angry with Him when people in my life rejected me.
He’s God so we assume when we come to Christ that life is just going to be smooth sailing. We forget that God is pro-choice. From the beginning of time, way back in the Garden of Eden, God demonstrated this by giving Adam and Eve the choice to sin. And when they chose the wrong option, they suffered the consequences.
Even people in the Bible were mad at God. Abraham was mad at God for not giving him a son in a timely manner. It never occurred to him that he delayed things when he tried to make God’s plan happen by sleeping with his wife’s maid, Hagar.
Saul was mad at God for anointing David to be king after Saul disobeyed God.
Job was mad at God. Even though he didn’t admit it to his friends, Job really let God have it. He didn’t curse God like his friends told him to, but he did yell at God. Elijah was mad at God because Jezebel threatened to kill him.
Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, was mad at God because her husband and two sons both died.
What are you mad at God about? Did someone close to you die? Did you have to endure abuse? Did someone reject you?
It’s okay to be mad at God. It’s what you do with that anger that counts. Anger is simply a feeling that indicates that we feel like we, or someone else, is being done wrong. Maybe we feel like we are being controlled, being used or just not being treated the way we think we should.
Ephesians 4:26 says “Be angry and sin not.” That means that it is all right to be angry. Jesus was angry when He saw the people selling in the temple. He was so angry that He threw over the tables.
But if you keep that anger bottled inside and don’t release it in some way, you will cause yourself to become sick-both physically and emotionally.
When I tell you to release it, I do not mean through physical violence or by using your tongue to cut people down. Nor am I speaking of plotting revenge.
There are several things you can do when you are mad at God to release the anger:
- Journal: Take your journal and write a letter to God, telling Him everything you feel-the reasons you are angry with Him, the things you think are unfair. Unleash all your thoughts and feelings onto those pages. Don’t worry about God being mad at you. He is all-powerful. He can take your criticism.
- Talk To God: Yell at Him. Cry. Get angry with God. Verbalize how you are feeling. Talk to Him as long and as loud as you need to. Try to get as much of your feelings into words as you can.
- Exercise: Play ball. Kick box. Beat up a punching bag. Work out. Get your frustrations out through physical activity. You will release endorphins into your system that will calm you down. Be Creative: Put your anger into painting, drawing, dancing, doing something creative.
- Help Others: The more you help others, the less you will be thinking about your own problems. And once your focus is off of you and onto the needs and problems of others, you will find that instead of spending your energy being angry with God, you can spend it making a difference in others’ lives.
- Talk To Someone: If you can’t get past your anger, go talk to a friend, a parent, your pastor. Preferably someone who has been there before.
Don’t believe people who tell you that being angry at God means you aren’t a true Christian because that simply isn’t true. It means that you are a human being who just doesn’t understand the why of every situation. The question is, though, are you going to let the anger control you, or are you going to control the anger?
Be the first to comment