Being angry with God

Growing up, there were two things that I always heard. 1. You never question God. 2. You are never, ever angry with God. After all, you are to have the fear of the Lord... and faith.  As I have gotten older, and lived many of life experiences, I have found that both of these things are complete bullocks.

I do think of myself as a woman of faith, and yet I have certainly questioned God.  After all, His ways are far beyond mine and I rarely understand them. Many of my examples in the Bible also questioned God at one time or another. Think of John the Baptist. While he was eating bugs and living as an outcast, Jesus was hanging out with all sorts of "lowly" types drinking wine and eating nice spreads of food. John questioned. (Matthew 11:2-3)

But then there is the issue with being angry with God. Now, I have all sorts of personal opinions about this. One would be that if we are to have a relationship with God, wouldn't anger only be a natural feeling to have at one time or another? I just think of anyone in my life that I am close to and I can certainly think of times that I have felt angry with them. I would think that the key would be to be angry and sin not. (Ephesians 4:26) But personal opinions aside, there are also Biblical examples of people that felt upset with God.

Let's look at Jeremiah.  This guy was called to be a prophet at a young age and for years and years and years he was extremely faithful. And yet, by worldly standards, his ministry was a failure. He prophesized for 40 or so years warning the children of Israel, hoping that they'd change their ways and turn back toward God, and seemingly his cries were scattered in the wind. The Israelites didn't change their ways in his lifetime... Jeremiah didn't lead them into a massive repentance. There were no fireworks during his ministry, in fact quite the opposite.  He was often thrown in prison, talked about, laughed at, etc.  And yet he kept warning and they kept living in their same ol' rut.

And throughout the book of Jeremiah, we can see his frustration with God. In Jeremiah 20:7, he literally tells God, "O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed; I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me."  All God had been telling him was that destruction was to come to the children of Israel and how they should change their ways, and yet poor ol' Jeremiah felt deceived by God. Jeremiah the prophet felt upset at God! Jeremiah didn't understand God.  If he could fell those emotions, then surely it's okay for me to feel the same way...

But there is something to say for Jeremiah. Actually, a couple of somethings.
1. He didn't pretend like everything was A-Okay.  He was hurt at God and confused and rather than try to bury the problem, he told God exactly how He was feeling.  It's not like God didn't know anyway. And what's amazing is that God didn't strike him dead!! God didn't get mad at him for feeling angry.
2.  Further in Jeremiah's prayer, he said, "I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary..." (Jeremiah 20:9)  He was tired. He was hurt. And he thought about giving up. He'd even said he was going to give up. But he just couldn't. And he didn't. Instead,  Jeremiah kept on keeping on.

There are probably all kinds of other lessons in this illustration, but these were the 2 that really spoke to me. It's okay if I feel angry. It's okay if I feel upset with God. But God wants me to TALK to Him about the bad times just like I do the good times. And even when I feel like throwing in the towel, I've got to just keep on keeping on. And in the meantime I can be grateful that I can cast ALL my cares on Him...