Is It Okay to be Mad at God?

There is a very popular view on this question that teaches basically that "God can handle it." Many preachers, and teachers especially those on the radio and television will tell you that God understands when people get upset with Him. They'll say He gets it, and that He's "big enough" to handle a little criticism. I myself don't really understand from what source they have come to understand this. That God tolerates unfounded criticism. To criticize someone is to find fault. To point out error within that person's actions or personality. I don't believe the Bible teaches in anyway that God tolerates being falsely accused and charged with wrongs He is not guilty of.

So my personal answer to the question this blog asks will not be one popular with today's more tolerant view. I believe the answer is absolutely not.

No one ever has a valid excuse to be mad at God.When preachers teach that "He can handle it." I believe they are being very presumptuous because this is not backed up in scripture. In fact the Bible teaches quite the opposite. It teaches that if you are even mad at just a brother without cause you are in danger of judgment in Matthew 5:22. Imagine how much more likely you are to be judged for being mad at He who has never sinned, never given any legitimate cause for grievance. That is unless you think you can lay an accusation against Him? If you do you are in error, there is no nicer way to say that. However I do understand why some would think they do. I myself have been very mad at Him and I'll get into that in a moment.

Do not listen to presumptuous men who teach extra-biblical ideas of the nature and character of God. If you have a resentment against Him it is without cause and you are in danger of being held accountable to it. Do not seek His amends for He has none to make, rather you fall down and repent of your baseless accusations to a loving God Who has blessed you with life and cares deeply for you. For falsely entertaining any ideas of an accusation against Him.

Like I mentioned above I myself have been very mad at God. So I do understand why someone would think they might have something to accuse God of. Something to criticize about Him or His character. There was a time when I believed I had a charge to lay against Him. I was very angry with our God and held a deep resentment toward Him.

In my defense I was lead to believe things about Him that were all lies. Mind you the people that deceived me were themselves deceived and believed they were teaching me a truth that would bring me great comfort even honor. Instead it only brought questions and doubt.

You see I lived a very hard life before I came to Christ and as a result I was a very wicked and cruel man. I was a dope dealer, a pimp, a thief and con artist, a liar, and a drug addict. I could go on but the simplest way to describe the man I was is this. I was a low life piece of trash who treated everyone else as if they were as well.

When I came to God Christians began telling me what a great and glorious testimony I had. That God would use me to reach out to other lowlifes and help them become better men, to find redemption as I had. They even said that God had meant for me to live the life I had so that I could be used in this way.

They thought I would feel special for this, that I would see this as my calling with honor. That I had been “blessed” in such a way that I could reach the most hardened criminal because I could relate to that type of man as not many others in the church could.

What they did not understand was how hard my life had been before salvation. That every man I ever looked up to or loved was taken violently from me as a child and an adolescent. They didn’t know that my father had hanged himself to death when I was only 16. Or that even before that my best friend had been shot five times in the face and killed. That another friend was murdered by a gunshot to the chest. They didn’t know that I had many friends taken from me in such a way. They didn’t know of all the men in my family that had been taken from me by cancer, or about my brother that passed out drunk one night and drowned to death in his own vomit while he slept. They didn’t know of the beatings I took as a child for living in a neighborhood that was predominantly a different race than I was. That my jaw was shattered when I was a preteen, that my right cheekbone is cracked, that my body is covered in scars. There are other things I won’t mention.

So being taught that all of this was God's idea to give me a "testimony" caused me to question His character. This is hard to explain adequately in print so I've taken five minutes out of a message I preached once where this subject came up and made it into a clip. If you can take the time to watch now you might understand better what I mean.

In other words when they told me that God had meant for me to live the life I had. So that He could use me to reach people like me, they didn't realize exactly what they were in fact accusing God of having orchestrated. So of course I was mad at God. I didn’t admit this, not even to myself. I accepted that His ways were higher than my ways and that He must have a righteous reason for all of it. Although deep down a resentment grew. In my heart I was angry with my God.

They were wrong though! As I said in the clip God did not mean for me or anyone else to live such a life. After watching that television program that night I learned the truth. That God really did create us to live good lives. It was the devil that took that from us not God! When he slithered into the garden as a snake and twisted the Word of God deceiving our mother Eve.

Every since then God has done nothing but work to restore us to that paradise. Even though we spit on the life He intended for us and rejected His love for us He anger never consumed us. We get mad at Him without cause, we lay charges at His feet that belong to the devil and to the wickedness of mankind. He continues to love us even to the point of sending His only begotten Son to die for us with every cause to destroy us completely and justly.

That was my resentment toward God and it was born of a false understanding of the nature and reality of God. I’ve since learned the truth and I’ve repented.

I believe that any resentment anyone could have against our God is definitely misplaced. It's either a misunderstanding of Who our God really is, or it's a misplaced accusation. There are many evils that happen in this world but our God is not evil. He loves us enough to give us the freewill to serve Him or not. To be holy as He is holy or to turn from His love and pursue our own way. A way that seems right to us, but leads to nothing but death and sorrow. A way of wickedness. When we follow that path we not only hurt ourselves but we hurt many that we come into contact with.

So people get hurt and live hard lives not because of God but because of the decisions of others and even themselves. God is not the author of evil. He does not plan for people to go through destruction, sorrow, or misery so that He can accomplish a thing. He really does love all of us but He asks us to pray that His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Why would He ask us to pray such a thing? Because it doesn't always play out that way. We really are free to choose our own paths and a bad decision in this area can not only ruin our own but make the path of others much harder.

If you are mad at God I guarantee it's because of something someone else has done or even something you yourself are responsible for. It's not right to lay the blame for a wrong caused at the wrong feet. Especially at the feet of the only person Who is innocent of all wrong doing.