ANGER

I had a precious friend share with me the other day that she was angry with God about some disappointments that she had been experiencing. Not only was she experiencing pain from the disappointment but she was battling the guilt of being angry with God as well. This dear friend’s burden has stayed with me all week and has prompted me to write this devotional in hopes that not only will she be encouraged, but others as well.

I myself have experienced disappointments and know first hand how debilitating they can be when I allow them to give way to despair. That happens because I can not see the other side of the disappointment, and because I stay so focused on the disappointment, I allow myself to become a slave to it and end up so miserable that it begins to stir anger in me. And while I may not set out to deliberately be angry at God, it happens because my focus is in the wrong place.
Instead of saying, “what can I learn from this experience Lord?”, I say, “why Lord, have you allowed this to happen” and then park my mind on the pavement of question and doubt? Remember, that is how the serpent got Eve to sin, by doubting what God said or better yet, meant.

The scripture gives many lessons on anger and I would like to share one of them with you.

The story begins with a man minding his own business and then one day God ask him to go and take the people of Nineveh the message of His love, forgiveness and repentance. At first, Jonah responds to God’s request by traveling in a completely different direction from where God had told him to go. Now keep in mind that God for-knew what Jonah’s response was going to be before He even ask Jonah to go. I am sure that while Jonah knew enough about God to know that he should not disobey, he stubbornly set aside what he knew to be truth and went with his feelings. He had his focus in the wrong place. He became focused on doing it his way and not God’s way. I would argue that Jonah did not disobey God when he got on the boat to run from what he knew God wanted him to do, but at the moment he said in his heart…I will not go. You see God had ask Jonah to do something that He knew Jonah did not want to do. Jonah despised the people of Nineveh; they were not descended from Abraham and in fact had a history of treating the Israelites cruelly. The last thing he wanted to do was to take the love of God to a people that he despised. He even stated, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” and he did not want them to share in the same love and forgiveness that God’s people received.

Because of Jonah’s wrong choice (and it matters not what the choice is, if it’s wrong) he ended up in a whirlwind of disappointment and despair; slap dab in the middle of the belly of an enormous fish. God had placed Jonah in a situation (a time out chair so-to-speak) that was going to make or break his will so that God’s will would rise up and surface in the life of Jonah and accomplish what the devil meant for bad, God meant for good, to change Jonah and save a people from destruction.
But even though Jonah ended up exactly where God wanted him to go; Nineveh, and did exactly what God asked him to do, became the instrument God would use in saving an alien people, Jonah was still angry at God. Just because he was doing God's will doesn't mean that he was happy about it. Jonah prayed and told God exactly how he felt. Because God loved Jonah and was compassionate to his frustrations, slow to anger and really did not want to send calamity into his life. The Lord instead showed compassion to Jonah by making a vine grow up over Jonah’s head to provide shelter from the hot sun. Instead of sending fire and brimstone on Jonah for his lack of love and concern for others in which he probably deserved, God showed favor.

This is why in the middle of our own disobedience, God continues to show us favor…not because we may be doing everything right or wrong, but because He loves us in-spite of how we treat Him or others. Jonah also became angry when the vine that gave him shelter from the sun withered up because God had sent a worm that chewed it and caused it to die.
God ask Jonah did he have a right to be angry. Jonah actually said yes, and that he was angry enough to die. You see Jonah really believed in his heart that he was in the right. He thought he had every right to be angry. Besides Jonah doing what God had ask him to do….he felt like he was pretty much an obedient child of God at that point and was pretty sure of himself and could not understand why everything happening to him. This is a prime example of God telling us that His ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts....and ours not His!

Some important lesson’s that we can learn from Jonah are that when we focus on the disappointment and not TRUTH (what His Word may say about a situation, in which is always God’s will and His way for us) we will in fact become angry, disappointed and many times spiritually walk away from the Lord in certain areas of our lives. It is at that point that we begin a roller coaster ride of emotions and questions as to why we feel so disconnected from God. It almost always has something to do with us either denying what the truth is, or an unwillingness to accept the fact that we may not be able to change the situation.

We become angry for different reasons. Sometimes it’s because others have let us down and we allow our disappointment in them to fester until its taken root and has become sin in us. And because we don’t have an answer, we begin to make up our own answers in our own minds, which on the most part are never TRUTH; because they are birthed out of the sin... from anger and from the hurt that has entered us from our disappointment. Instead of showing forgiveness, we withdraw our love and allow bitterness to take its place.

We often are angry because we are powerless in a situation and do not know what to do. God knows about our powerlessness and wants us to trust in our prayers to Him to work out the situation in the best interest of everyone involved. But too often we take the role of controller and try to fix things ourselves which will inevitably make the situation worse. Sometimes, it’s because we want to make sure that the problem is resolved to get the outcome that we want. Sometimes it’s because our faith is too weak to trust God to really work it out. And still other times, it is not God that we do not trust but others that may be involved in our conflict, that they will not do the right thing and we feel powerless.

As you can see just by these two reasons alone, we can be so quick to choose feeling over TRUTH. When in fact, it is Truth that liberates us and set’s us free. As I was sharing with the ladies in my Bible Study the other night, we have got to stop living out of feelings and live in the light of what we know God’s word has to say about it. Sadly I fear that the struggle can go on much longer than it has to because we either, do not know what the Word of God may say about our situation, so we don’t have what we need to counter what is coming against us, or even worse, that we may be turning our backs on what we know, and refuse to yield to.

God’s word says that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with powers and principalities that are lurking around looking for opportunity to trip up the children of God. Our armor is what we know to be TRUTH, not what we wish could be truth. Don’t second guess God, He was, He is, and He will always be on our side. But we MUST wear His armor; we must do it His way. So many scriptures come to my mind that give warning, provides council and confirms His love when we are in a situation that may influence us to be angry at God when pain and conflict enter our life. You see,
God knows the source of our anger and the inner workings of our minds and spirits, and He knows our limitations even when we don’t. He knows the events and experiences that make us angry.
He knows our emotions and feelings of helplessness, fear, confusion, and dismay that lead to our anger. He knows all about our situation. Just as Jonah owned up to God about how he felt, we too need to express our anger to God when we are going through trials and tribulations that seem to push us over the edge. He will hold our hand and walk through the anger with us, providing light. It is up to us however, whether we open our minds/eyes to what He is saying. Be sure not to turn away from His truth because it is not what you want to hear. Otherwise you will stay in “the whale’s belly” as long as it takes to get you to see what He wants you to see, or learn what He wants you to learn. And while God does not necessarily send all pain into our lives, He wants to use everything that touches us to grow us and make us more like Him.

If your struggle is in loving someone or having compassion, God will most certainly send a wind your way to cause you discomfort in order to change your attitude. He wants you to learn that while going through the storm if you will keep your focus on Him and not your frustrations as Jonah did while He is working on you, then the process will not be as bad nor will it take as long to ge through it. He wants you to see yourself as He sees you, or maybe I should say He wants you to see your sin as He sees it. In the first chapter of Jonah, Jonah states that he knew that he was in that storm because of his disobedience and because the storm that God sent for Jonah’s sake was having an effect on the people around him in the boat, Jonah requested they throw him over board. That too was Jonah's choice.

Once we see it as God sees it then we can deal with it and overcome it....never let the sun go down on your anger...deal with it and move on ...peace is around the corner waiting on you!

I love you and am praying God release His power over you today as you release your hurt to Him!

Bren