Most of us have been angry with God. We can all recall circumstances in our lives when we’ve been overcome with emotion and directed our wrath to the Lord. We lose a loved one and in our grief we lash out, demanding to know why God would do such a horrible thing to such a wonderful person. We’re caught up in the emotion of our grief and we demand an explanation. We have to find a logical or at least an understandable reason for why this happened. Sometimes, when we’ve calmed down a bit, we look back at our anger with God and we’re shocked and ashamed. We feel guilty for being angry with the Lord. We see our anger as a sin. But, is it really?
Anger is an emotion. It flows out of our humanity and isn’t consciously willed. You don’t get cut off in traffic and “decide” to get angry with that thoughtless driver—your anger is upon you without you thinking about it. If you read some of the Psalms, you’ll soon realize that David was often angry at God. Read Psalm 22. David has an intimate relationship with the Lord and in intimate relationships, you don’t try to hide your feelings from the other person. Honestly sharing your emotions is a key to the bond you share. David couldn’t have hidden his feelings from God if he’d tried. So David owned up to his feelings. He cried out to God in his anger and despair. You don’t encourage trust and intimacy by shrouding your heart. But after David expressed his anger to God, the Psalm show that he didn’t just stay in that wrathful place.
After David genuinely rales at God, he gets it out of his system. He moves on. In Psalm 22, David moves through his anger, to praise. He gets back to his right relationship with God. And isn’t this what happens in our healthy relationships? We get angry with our spouse, we express it, get over it, reconcile, and move on. A friend wrongs us, we hash it out, we work through it, make up and go on with our friendship. The relationship we enjoy with God is like this, too. Sharing our genuine emotions with our Creator and Savior is a great gift and reveals our “family” relationship with Him. Yes, our anger also reveals our own brokenness and it shows how little we truly understand His love for us. But God knows our hearts and loves us anyway.
In some ways, our anger reveals how much we love God. After all, we reserve our strongest emotions for the ones we love the most. But we can’t allow ourselves to remain in that anger. Emotions like anger, are involuntary. But allowing ourselves to continue in anger is a choice we make. And choices can be wrong. There comes a time when our anger at God does become sinful. David reveals a way for us to move beyond anger and that way is through repentance and gratitude.
The moment we turn our thoughts to all the many blessings of God, our anger turns to sorrow and from sorrow, to praise. Gratitude takes all the air out of our wrath. For me, I move from anger, to tears, to praise. My tears are the sorrow I feel for being mad at the One Who has given me everything. I offer them to Him and He accepts them, over and over again. We’ve been through this before and, sinner that I am, we’ll probably go through it again. That’s how true love works. Its’a journey that is so much deeper than fleeting emotions. I know that God understands my anger and I know as well that He wants more for me than that. Only His grace can heal me. Your anger with God doesn’t surprise Him. He knows you loved your friend who died unexpectedly. He understands the anger you feel at your broken marriage. Don’t feel guilty over that genuine anger. But, like David, don’t make your home in it, either. Let it out and move on. Thank God for all the love you still have in your life and trust Him to give you even more.
“For He has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch. He did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out. I will offer praise…”
—Psalm 22:25-26
tiberjudy 