What To Do When You’re Mad At God

Have you ever been mad at God?

Maybe you are right now!

Maybe a person whom you trusted has betrayed you, left you or even passed away and you wonder why God didn’t intervene.

Maybe you are seeing all the horrific things on the news and wonder why God doesn’t step in.

Are you fumbling around just getting through each day and wondering if there actually is more to life than this? Maybe your body is sick and no amount of prayer seems to working.

What is going on?!

Come on, you can be honest with me – at least you can be honest with yourself. I’m sure a lot of you have been there. I know I have.

Now before your mind starts screaming, “You’re not allowed to do that! Who do you think you are? That lightning will come crashing in through the window to smite you if you do.”

NEWS FLASH!

It’s OK to be angry at God!

Did you know that?

It’s what you do with that anger that matters.

The problem is, some people run away from God and hold such great resentment toward Him, vowing that He no longer exists. I once heard a speaker say that he had never met an Atheist (and he had met many) who knew absolutely nothing about God. They once believed in Him but hurt and bitterness got in the way.

Have you told God that you are angry or what you are angry about?

He would prefer you tell Him about it than you walking away.

There is a catch:

It’s OK to tell God what’s on your heart but you need to take the time to listen to what He has to say back. He will never be angry at you.

We’ll deal with this step later.

Now.

Imagine a married couple living in a house together. The husband is so much in love with the wife, loves to do things for her, longs to be with her and just passionately adores her. But, his wife has misunderstood a situation involving her husband that her friend told her about. Instead of speaking directly to her husband to find out what actually happened, she stomps around the house slamming doors, muttering under her breath that she can’t believe her husband did that and completely ignores him the whole time. Meanwhile, he is still pursuing her, loving and adoring her, trying to bring her comfort and asking what is wrong – but all he gets is a raised, sarcastic voice or is completely ignored.

Let’s Get Real.

This is a similar picture of us when we get angry at God.

Maybe you don’t slam doors or yell at Him but you stay away from Him, harden your heart towards Him and ignore His promptings to come close.

It’s OK to not understand and be angry. God has broad shoulders and He can handle it.

God is NOT in control.

He really isn’t. (Here is Part 1 & Part 2 of an in-depth look at why He isn’t.)

God is sovereign and in charge, but not in control. We are.

God gave you and me and everyone on the planet dominion over all creation, except each other, and we are even in control of ourselves.

God is NOT to blame.

This is a really important point. When something goes wrong, it’s our first instinct to blame someone else. Just look at Adam and Eve. However, if God is indeed good ALL the time – which He is – He wouldn’t bring calamity onto His children whom He created on purpose. We live in a world where the demonic kingdom has a lot of authority with those who give it to them. God steps in when you pray — in the way that He knows best!

LET ME GO!

There was one point in my life where I just didn’t want this ‘God stuff’ anymore. Nothing seemed to be going right, I was incredibly sick with my pregnancy, I felt so alone and my prayers didn’t seem to work. I was REALLY angry at God. I screamed at God, called Him all the names I could think of (I’m just being real here, not a proud moment) and told Him to take a long walk off a short pier. After all, I couldn’t get this ‘Christian stuff’ to work so I gave up trying. God didn’t love me anyway so I was outta there!

Well, a powerful lesson was about to come my way. A few days after I had made this decision, my waist felt like I had a rope around it. Each day this spiritual rope would get tighter and tighter. I knew it was God but I kept resisting, telling Him to leave me alone. After a couple of months the rope was so tight that it was physically painful. I was on the train coming home from work, I sat down and the pain was so great I relented. I said aloud, “Fine. I give in.” Immediately the spiritual rope released, the pain left and a peace came over me that I had not experienced before. I still had the choice. I could have told Him to leave me alone – and He would have. However, I chose to submit to God so He said to me, “Now, tell me why you are angry. I love you and I will NEVER let you go.” Hence to say, I cried all the way home. For the first time ever, I didn’t care what anyone thought of me in that moment because I had experienced God showing me that He would never leave me – even though most others in my life had and even though my behaviour was atrocious towards Him, He wasn’t going to leave.

God sees the bigger picture. He knows the future. You can trust Him.

What To Do Now.

Step 1

The first obvious step is to take time to tell God why you are actually angry – at your family, your friends, your job, the sickness or pain in your body, your life in general. Whatever you are angry or feel let down about, just tell Him. Be completely and absolutely honest. He knows it all anyway so you may as well be completely vulnerable and transparent because God can work with that.

Sit down and write out a list of all the situations and people that have hurt or disappointed you. It’s really very therapeutic. Talk to God about this list and tell Him what happened and why you are angry at Him for all of these things.

Step 2

Next, ask God why these things have happened the way they have. It’s OK to do that.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:3,

“‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'”

This is an invitation from God Himself, to you, to ask Him ANYTHING! Wow! He is offering to tell you things that you don’t know and give you answers to your questions.

A side note: Remember, God does have all the answers but there are times when it is better that you don’t know what they are. Learn to be OK with that and learn how to trust that He truly does know best. He doesn’t keep things from you to harm you. He keeps them from you to protect you.

Step 3

This step is really important. Make sure that you make time to sit and listen to what God is saying to you. Your Heavenly Father wants to answer your questions. Some of the answers may not be what you want to hear but He will only tell you the truth and comfort you in the way you need. Some of it will bring great relief to your wounded heart and soul.

Take time to just sit and let God love on you. (I write about how to do this here.)

The bottom line:

God is not the problem but
He is usually the One who gets the blame.

I pray that you will be able to be completely honest with your Heavenly Father who loves you dearly. He knows what’s in your heart anyway and He so desperately wants to heal you so you can become free and live the abundant life that He created you to live.

Did you find this helpful? Was this an easy task for you to do? Please share your experiences and/or challenges with us in telling God how you really feel.

You matter to God. Don’t move away from Him but come close. He longs to hold you and show you that everything really will be OK.

Abundant blessings to you today,

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