I am angry at God: Am I allowed to be?
Anger is an emotion created by God, so it’s normal that we feel it from time to time. Even Jesus experienced anger; one of the most notable records of Jesus’ anger is in John 2 when Jesus literally created a whip to drive out animals and those selling them for a profit in the temple.
David experienced anger with the death of his son. Moses experienced numerous bouts of anger with the Hebrew people. Anger, on its own, is not a sin; it is an emotion created by God — a God who also experiences anger from time to time with His hardhearted people.
The question is really, what happens when your anger is aimed at God? It’s certainly not unique — David experienced anger toward God several times, notably in 2 Samuel 6 when his friend and comrade Uzzah was killed by God for inadvertently touching the ark of the covenant.
For many people, difficult experiences, seasons and traumatic events lead to anger toward God. So, what do we do with that anger, and is it OK to be angry at God?
Anger itself isn’t the issue; how we respond to the anger is most important
Like any emotion, anger has the power to be beneficial or destructive. Righteous anger, like what Jesus experienced in the temple, can be ignited when we stand up for people who have been wronged or marginalized. It can propel us forward and fuel social justice movements.
Anger can also make us bitter and cause us to harbor resentment and hatred toward others, which is a direct violation of the love that Jesus calls us to have for one another.
Anger toward God can cause us to separate ourselves from God — to create distance in order to subdue the pain we are experiencing. While this is never a good thing, it’s important to note that even in seasons where we distance ourselves from God, He still remains faithful and walks with us. If you ever need proof of that, just refresh yourself with the story of the prodigal son. God meets us with open arms the second we turn back to Him.
So, if anger itself isn’t the issue, is it OK to be angry at God during extremely difficult seasons?
When used correctly, anger can be an invitation into greater intimacy with God. Anger invites us to question and to seek answers. It invites us to question who God is, and when we seek those answers, we will be confronted with the truth about God: that He loves us more than life itself, and that there are no lengths He won’t go to in order to rescue and redeem us.
Hebrews 4:16 (NLT) says, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
In this verse, the writer of Hebrews is saying that we can boldly approach God with exactly what is on our minds — with our anger, with our questions — and He will meet us there.
Paul confirms this earlier in his writings to the church in Philippi when he says in Philippians 4:7 that we will experience peace that “surpasses all understanding” (NKJV). This means that you can use your anger as an invitation to boldly approach the throne of God, and in those questions and seeking, God will meet you there and give you the peace you need. You may not get every answer that you seek, but you will receive peace that surpasses all understanding.
Anger gets us to our “bottom line” prayers
Pastor Bryant wrote an email recently on the power of “bottom line prayers.” In his email, he states:
I had heard Philippians 4:6 a hundred times. It’s an easy answer for “church people” to anyone struggling: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Bam! There you go … that’s your answer! You just need to pray more. …
At my lowest point while I was searching for some kind of answer, relief, anything really, I realized that the kind of praying Paul (the dude who wrote it and who had a ton to be anxious about) was writing about was different than how I was praying. All of my prayers had been what I’d call Top Line Prayers: I prayed about my obvious circumstances and how I wanted them changed so I could feel better: “God, my marriage is terrible; fix it!” “I’m overwhelmed; help me!” “We don’t know how to survive this; make it go away!” Those aren’t bad prayers necessarily, but they are not what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4:6.
Anxiety and fear run deep. And to pray at a level that exposes what’s really going on in our hearts takes Bottom Line Prayers. … When Paul says, “present your requests to God”, he’s not talking about telling God about your circumstances and how you want them changed; he’s talking about praying at a deeper level than you’ve ever prayed before. “Present” means “to tell the whole story or to gain full knowledge of.” See, most of us have never really confronted the full story of why we are anxious and fearful — of why we really want those circumstances to change. We’ve never been vulnerable enough to really figure out why we feel the way we feel. What are you REALLY afraid of? What is REALLY behind that prayer for a change of circumstances? That’s what God is inviting us to bring to Him. But it takes work, it takes honesty, it takes a certain level of rawness that supersedes a lot of the polite cliché prayers we were taught to pray. It’s why you have to start with being brutally honest about what is really behind what you feel.
You see, anger helps us get to those bottom line prayers. And sometimes (not all the time), God uses situations to rip away our complacent nature and get us to those gut-deep prayers and conversations.
So, no — anger in itself is not a sin. And it’s OK to be angry with God — but you can use that anger as an invitation to draw closer to the God who moved heaven and earth to be with you.