Pastor Bonnie MacDonald, Washington
Being Mad At God
I have heard it said: “If there is a God,
why are things the way they are?” or a person will get mad at God because of
adverse circumstances in their lives. A
child dies … we become ill … you may lose all of your money, or your job … a
natural disaster destroys your home and belongings. BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. How do we deal with this in our hearts and in
our minds?
Let me give you my perspective on this
subject:
When God created man, He gave him dominion
over the earth. God did not say: “I give you dominion, but you can’t do this,
this, and this.” He did say, “If you do
(or don’t do) certain things, you will or will not be happy. He set up some rules for us to live by that
will ensure us a long and happy life. He
said “If you love me, you will obey me.”
He told us to treat each other with love and respect, and we don’t
always do that. He also said that we
reap what we sow, and there is no respect of persons. In other words, there are consequences to our
actions – for everyone – no one is exempt.
There are good and bad consequences.
We reap good things from the good things we do.
Sometimes when bad things happen to us, it
is just the reaping of wrong choices we have made in the past. Then when God doesn’t deliver us when we expect Him to, we get mad
at Him. Let me give you some
examples: Let’s say we abuse our body:
we don’t eat right and we don’t exercise, or we don’t’ get enough rest. We just go on our merry way and don’t pay
attention to the needs of our body.
Perhaps we have been in ministry working for the Lord and doing only
good things and don’t take care of ourselves.
However, we get sick. Then we go
for prayer and we don’t get healed right away.
And maybe we even get sicker, and this goes on for a very long time
until we say: “Where are you, God?” Does that mean He won’t heal us or that He
doesn’t love us? NO! It simply means we may be reaping, perhaps
only for a season, but none-the-less, it may be for a season because we need to
learn that there are physical laws and there is reaping and sowing.
BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. Disasters happen and it may have nothing to
do with reaping – we just happened to be there.
What then? Where is God? We lose a loved one to sickness or an
accident. A baby dies, and we have
prayed. How can this be?
God did not promise us a perfect life. He never told us there would be no
trouble. He has promised us heaven after
this life – where it is perfect.
However, this life is a training ground.
A place where we learn to rule and reign with Him in that heavenly life. We must get to know God – through reading His
Word and through fellowship with Him.
GOD IS OMNISCIENT – He knows
everything. He knows the end from the
beginning – meaning, He is aware of everything before it happens and nothing
takes Him by surprise.
GOD
IS OMNIPRESENT – He is in all places at the same time and at all times.
GOD
IS OMNIPOTENT - He is all
powerful and nothing and no one can defeat Him.
GOD
IS TRUSTWORTHY – He will do what He says He will do and you can always
trust Him. If your prayer is not
answered when you want it to be, be assured He heard it and He is working. There are times we give Him something and
then grab it back before He resolves it because He didn’t work fast enough to
suit us.
Why do you serve God? Is it because of what He can do for you? If so, you will be disappointed because God
is not a pie in the sky. He does not
always do what we want, when we want it done, because He knows the final
outcome and what we want is not always what is best. The key here is to trust Him. HE IS GOD AND HE IS SOVEREIGN.
Why are there wars and genocide? Why is the world not fair? Because people are evil.
Remember before
In Ezekiel it says that mankind’s sin ”crushes” God.
When we go away from Him and love other things more than Him, He is
crushed.
That should show you a little about the
love and compassion that God has for us.
And look at us – what are we doing (again)? If anyone is going to be mad, it should be
God. But He’s not because He loves
us. Believe it! It’s true!
And no matter what you are going through, God is still God and He loves
you – and you will be delivered in due time – if you don’t give up.
