Anger at the Lord

Anger is an emotion that is often overlooked when talking about our relationship with God, yet it is crucial to understand, overcome, and journey through.

When we are walking through a difficult situation, if we are told “This is all part of God’s perfect plan”, it can only further our frustration. In fact, the concept of God’s plan for us is extremely difficult to grasp, especially in the midst of trials and tribulations.

Is God Good?

When we are in a place of hurt and heartache, so much of our struggle is fighting with the “character” of God. Asking the question “Is God good?” is the root of many people’s anger at the Lord, and the enemy goes after this uncertainty and doubt. However, it is important to remember that God is not the author of your pain—the enemy wants us to think otherwise and he preys on that. We believe that suffering comes from the enemy, and from other people’s sin, but it does not come from God.

John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” We can take comfort in this verse, because we know that the Lord is still perfect and good- suffering does not come from him.

In the book God Is Just Not Fair: Finding Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense, the author, Jennifer Rothschild dives deep into the topic of how to navigate our anger with the Lord. She says that God has taught her that as she wrestles with him, not to choose flight but to choose a holy fight. That is, when we are in the midst of adversity, we need to cling to the Lord and hold on with our strength, having an unwillingness to let go.

If we look at Jacob’s “wrestling match” with God in Genesis as an example of this, we can know that even when we are angry at the Lord, if we fight to stay close to Him, we can walk away from the hardship saying we saw God face to face. Jacob walks away with a limp, but also with a new name: Israel, which means “God contends.” In a sense, a confrontation with the Lord is one of the most powerful exchanges we can have with Him, and it gives us a whole different level of perspective.

Navigating Anger

With this, we encourage you to ask the Lord what He has for you in this adversity. We spend a lot of time asking Him to make the difficult things easy, instead of asking Him to simply be with us in the process. Then, when He doesn’t make it easier, we get bitter. So, if we shift our prayer to ask the Lord to walk with us in darkness, this can be crucial for learning more about ourselves and who we are in Christ.

Although it is difficult to accept, it is so important to understand that it is not God’s desire for us to be hurt—the state of the world, crippled by sickness, pain, and death, is not as it is supposed to be; we live in a broken world. But through all of this, God is still good.

1 John 1: 5 says “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” To know that God is pure light and that you will never find even a trace of darkness in Him is freeing, and is a scripture in which we can rest our anger at the Lord. So, we encourage you not to run away from or shove down your anger at God, but rather ask Him to walk with you and help navigate you through it.

For more on this topic listen to our Mercy Podcast episode “Permission to Be Angry at God.” Looking for an in-depth study on processing your “root issues” with the Lord? Check out our Keys to Freedom study! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more inspiring content.

Mercy Multiplied is a nonprofit Christian organization that equips people to live free and stay free through Jesus Christ. To learn more about our free-of-charge residential counseling program and Outreach services visit our website at MercyMultiplied.com.