Being angry with God

Have you ever find yourself in a situation where nothing is working? You pray, meditate the Word regularly, but it is as if God is not hearing or seeing anything!! In such moments the question that often comes to our lips is "Why? " Why me Lord? "... 

Recently I had to live this exact situation: my younger brother was sick, very sick to the point where he could not do anything except lying on his bed. When I heard this, of course I turned to God and I began to pray for him. What was happening was that the more I prayed, the more the situation seemed to getting worse... It made no sense to me, I was praying but it was as if God did not even hear me. Then gradually I began to lose my trust in God, and then I got angry at God (it's crazy huh)... So during that time my relationship with God had deteriorated, I had more and more a hard time to pray because I thought it was useless...

One day through a sermon in church I realized that I had no reason to be angry with God. After all, He is my dad and He told me in His word that His plan is to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me hope and a future. Thinking that this same God would not want my well being by not answering my prayer is just insane.

Unfortunately, this kind of situation happens to many of us. When things do not work the way we want, when we earnestly request something from God and it doesn't happen, we lose patience and the devil takes the opportunity to make us believe lies like God does not hear us, He does not love us or He is punishing us.

As I said these are lies, God loves us so much that He cannot, in any way, want to harm us. How can we think that the same God who loved us enough to die for us will refuse to give us fully what we ask him? The problem is that when these situations occur, we do not understand why God does not answer so we choose to go away from him. But as Christians are we not supposed to walk by faith? Yes, everything revolves around faith and trust in God. Having faith does not mean we will understand what God is doing, why and how He does it. After all He is sovereign and He does whatever He wants and the way He wants. However, one thing is certain: in all His sovereignty God is madly in love with us and His sovereignty will never take us where His grace and love are not overflowing.

Being angry with God does not help, the devil uses that opportunity to lead us further away from God. We have to understand that God loves us no matter what happens to us, what He allows in our lives is always for our good. We may not see it now but we must believe, believe in His love for us even when nothing is going the way it’s supposed to go and not get angry with Him. 

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (NIV)

Romans 9: 15-16

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. (NIV)

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (NIV)

Hebrews 13:5

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (NIV)

By:   El-j.

Are You Listening to God?

Are you being disobedient? 

We know that God listens to us all the time which is why we must pray all the time. But did you know that God also speaks to us all the time? Huh? What? How?

Yes He does! And He does it through various ways! You must spend time with God to get to know Him and to understand how He communicates with you. As for me, He can speak regarding a particular situation through the bible, or sometimes it’s through a song, or through the Holy Spirit. While other times, He speaks to me through people or sometimes it’s in mysterious new ways… I once found in my glass of water a heart formed by water particles… that was God telling me He loves me. It was pretty cool, actually, to know that God could communicate a message to me that way. Now, all this is fancy and awesome but the question is, what do we do once God speaks? Do we listen to what He tells us!!?? When He says no, do we listen? Or do we just try to open a door He has already shut?

Once you grow out of that phase when ‘you think you’re always right’, you realize your parents we’re right all along. Don’t you? You say “O.M.G., my parents we’re right about this or that” well… God doesn’t just speak to make noise either. He speaks because He has something to tell you and if it is not beneficial for you right now, it will bring fruit later. That’s one of the reason why each time the Lord speaks to me through the Holy Spirit, I write everything down… even when it doesn’t make sense. Once I even wrote down one of my dreams, it was so weird but I still wrote it down, and once I was going through my phone notes and read it, it ended up being some sort of revelation for me regarding a particular situation I was in. All this is to say that God has an intention when He is speaking. Like c’mon, He’s The Almighty, He knows everything. So, I think at this point, you should start giving in and listening to what He has to say… not just hear! But LISTEN and DO!

There’s a very distinct difference between hearing and listening. We all know that. Sometimes, we like to pretend though, that we’re listening to our parents or listening to our friends telling us all about their problems, when really all we’re doing is hearing and nodding to show we’re paying attention. We do the same to God too. We go to church, hear the sermon, and say “wow good word, that truly convicted me” but once we step out of the church doors, it’s like the message went right out the other ear. We hear the message but we didn’t listen. We don’t listen to that conviction that we must change certain things about ourselves. That’s probably the reason why God still has some of our blessings but still hasn’t released them yet. He’s waiting for us to be obedient and to follow Him wherever He leads. You cannot see the road ahead for yourself, but God can, so trust His voice and allow Him to lead you.

  

Following the Lord’s commands also plays a big role in this. We all hate being told what to do, especially as young people, but understand that the Lord disciplines those whom he LOVES! If you love your friend, and you see them walking towards a big ditch, will you let them walk right in? I said if you love that friend… you won’t right? Same with God. And He loves you with a matchless love. No one will ever love you the way that He does. So if He gives you instructions and restricts you from doing certain things, it’s because He loves you and wants what is best for you. So why are we still stubborn and refuse to listen when He speaks?

I think, it is because we lack faith. Everything comes down to faith. If you believed that the Lord loves you and everything He does in your life is so that you can prosper and have a future, then you wouldn’t question a single thing the Lord says. You wouldn’t doubt or question anything God is doing in your life. You would let go and let God. Plus, it’s not even your life though… you surrendered it to Him remember? So stop taking it back into your hands! That situation you gave to Him to handle for you, why are you taking it back? God has said “Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33). You pretty much have to deny yourself in order to listen to God and to follow His will, I don’t believe you can do both: have God control one area of your life, while you control the other? No! It’s always all or nothing with God. So make a decision. Will you be obedient or will you be disobedient? Will you listen to God or just decide to ignore His voice?

Seek Him on these last few days of the fast, and do so diligently! Day and night! And when the Lord speaks, make sure you listen to what He says and obey and trust Him!

Proverbs 3:11-12 (NIV)

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

James 1:22 (NIV)

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Matthew 7:24 (NIV)

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

By: Vicky (Vessel Speaker)