Why Are Believers Mad at God? Part 3

In part 1 and part 2, we discussed the first three categories I have found in which most believers who find themselves angry with God fall. In the third and final part, we’ll take a look at the last category—raging when foolish.

When Foolish, Do I Rage Against God?

There is a fourth reason people rage against God. They do something stupid that brings about suffering and ruin and then they shake a fist at God.

The Bible says, "The foolishness of man ruins his way, and his heart rages against the Lord” (Proverbs 19:3).

I receive numerous e-mails from people struggling with their faith in God and feeling like God let them down. Pulsating throughout the e-mail is their anger at God.

But as the story unfolds I hear this: “Why does my spouse not respond to me? Why are they so unloving and disrespectful? Why is God letting this happen? I am their fourth spouse. Where is God?”

I want to say but do not say, “You made your own bed; now sleep in it. Three earlier marriages failed with this person and you marry them? What were you thinking? The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. What did you expect to happen? The person you married does not know how to do relationships.”

Of course I know their response: “But I was different than the former spouses. S/He told me I was totally different. The other three had major issues. S/He truly was an innocent victim. Besides, we clicked. We had such chemistry. Yes, we married after six weeks of knowing each other but I just knew God brought us together.”

Yet, no serious research took place to find out why those three marriages went under. The only information came from the “innocent victim."

Too many people live their lives enraged against God because of their foolishness. They ruined a significant portion of their life but blame God.

Can We Disguise Our Hatred of God?

We can go years secretly resenting God. The Bible says, “Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him” (Psalm 81:15).

I talked with a woman recently who is mad at God due to her daughter’s baby dying after six hours of living. The suffering is real but she and her daughter who know the Lord are sitting on a major unresolved issue about God’s faithfulness. They are uncertain about God’s goodness, power, and faithfulness to His promises. She had a promise box filled with scriptural promises, but with the death of this child, she doubted the truth of these promises. Yet, she sat in church week after week.

Is the Lord speaking to you about your anger toward Him? Are you disguising the hatred of the Lord; and if so, is it time to address it?

How mad at Him are you? Is this short-lived or could this last for years? In other words, do you envision moving through this relatively quickly or do you intend to hang on to your bitterness toward God?

Have you discerned why you resent God? Is it due to tragedy (which truly calls all of us to come around you with empathy and tears)? Or is it due to carnality, conviction, or foolishness?

I do not know your situation, but hating God is not a good thing. You need God and His love. Yes, I agree, in some instances He will not tell you why certain things happened. But will you choose to trust His goodness and control like Job in the face of what you do not understand?

My prayer is that you will end where this woman who wrote me ended:

I know what it feels like to march yourself down the aisle of a church at ten years old—telling people you've just accepted Jesus to live inside of you . . . I know what it means to be rebellious in those teen and college years and then to feel God's protection during a near rape. . . . I know what it's like to date and marry someone who said they would go to church, but never did in twenty-three years. . . .

I know what it's like to be a lukewarm mediocre Christian woman—not hanging on tightly to the hand of Jesus—relying on Him only now and then. I know what it's like to grieve and be in shock over the death of your two-year-old son, to be angry at God and the church and to feel the guilt of not being a good protective mom.  . . . I know what it's like to live with and take care of a husband who is chronically ill with diabetes, has lung surgery, renal failure, and two transplant surgeries. I know what it's like to live with someone who is angry at God and the world for the deck of cards he's been dealt. I know what it's like to live in constant unresolved anger.

I know what it means to be a "dead woman walking"—a woman who in that state, turns her back on her God, husband, and family, choosing the sin of adultery three times to feel something. I know what it feels like to lose all integrity, to become a cheat and a liar, someone I couldn't recognize. I know what it means to murder a relationship—walking out on everything you've ever known—ending up eventually with unbearable guilt and shame.

I know God's grace and mercy, when after four years, I started listening to the tapping and small, still voice that had never left. I know what it means to be obedient to the command of righting a wrong—of asking forgiveness from your ex-husband and daughter for past sins of which they were unaware—to feel their hurt, pain, and anger. I know the power that God has to restore relationship even though it will never be the same.

I know that wrong choices made in disobedience produce such grave consequences—the biggest being separated from God. I know the feeling of being so empty and lonely. I know the wonderful power that God has to reconcile a father and a daughter through forgiveness. I know that in the last three years, through much prayer, spending time with Him and studying the Word, many of my strongholds have been shattered.

I know that if God is invited in, He will heal the pain of a broken heart. I know that my mind is daily being transformed and renewed. I know that I am growing by leaps and bounds in His truth, wisdom, discernment, and knowledge and that I am experiencing a great capacity to love others. I know that the wonderful spiritual gifts He has given me will be used for His glory, for I am passionately in love with the One who pulled me out of my grave.

I know that due to His death, resurrection, and forgiveness, I can walk in His anointing for my life and am willing to serve Him with my whole being. . . . I give God, through His Son Jesus Christ, all the honor and glory in my life. AMEN

-Dr. E