The letter from Betty I shared earlier this week brought up a touchy subject that most of us would rather sideline.  Anger with God.  Have you ever had a situation so horrific that you didn’t just question God but you felt angry that God let it happen?  I think many of us have, no matter how long we have been Christians, but we often don’t admit it.  Why?  We feel guilty about our anger against God.  Somehow we have programmed ourselves to think that anger is not allowed.  However there is good evidence that God is OK with us expressing our rage toward Him.

Job is a very familiar character in the Bible who is famous for his anger against God.  Job had many reasons to be angry.  In a very short time he lost his children, his property, his standing in his community and his health.  His wife advised him to curse God and die!  But Job did not.  He contended with God and was angry with Him but he never stopped believing through it all.  He wanted an answer from God as to why he was being punished when he had not sinned against Him.  God never really answered Job but instead showed Him through His majesty that He was in control.  Job was left without answers to his questions but getting answers weren’t important anymore.  He was justified by God and his friends were chastised for claiming that Job must have sinned and caused his predicament. His property and standing in the community were reinstated better than before.  He had more children and lived a long life after his trials.

The story of Job is interesting in many ways.  It’s notable that there was evil behind the scenes testing Job and God allowed this for a time.  Job never was privy to this information ever.  Also God never chastised Job for being angry with him.  He praised Job’s integrity throughout all his trials.

So if we take this story to heart, we can make two assumptions.  The first is to recognize that there probably is more going on behind the scenes in the spiritual world than we’ll ever know in this life.  In other words, we can’t see the whole picture.  We live in a world that is broken where bad things happen to good people.  The second assumption is that God does not get upset with us when we get angry with Him.  He wants us to be authentic and honest with Him.  What seems to really upset God is when we try to deceive Him or ignore Him.  We can’t lie to God about how we feel or what we’ve done.  God’s heart is broken when we ignore Him or act as if He doesn’t exist.  Job could have said that there must not be a God or He wouldn’t allow him to suffer.  But he didn’t.  Job kept up his conversation with God throughout his whole ordeal.  He continued to believe even as he railed against what was happening to him.  Even though it appeared that God had abandoned Job, He hadn’t.

We’re never promised that life will be easy or equitable. If fact, Jesus said that trouble was ahead for all of us.  Whatever you are going through right now, know that it is OK to be angry.  Let your feelings be made known to God and in Him you will find comfort. You may be delivered in this life from your troubles but reality is, you may not.  But through it all remember, you will be delivered someday and God will move through this life with you all the way.  He will not abandon you. These are promises we can stand on every day to help us survive and flourish with whatever life throws at us.