ARE YOU ANGRY WITH GOD?

. . . and then there was last Friday! The print cartridge in the type writer I use for billing was out of ink. The printer for the computer wouldn’t print. The old printer that was in the basement had no USB connection. The computer battery on my laptop died. (I’m typing on my daughter’s, computer. Thanks Mandi!) There were no computer batteries in Huntington or Fort Wayne. It would take one from Batteries Plus five to seven days to arrive. Two of my billings to Medicare came back as unpaid due to a mistyped letter on a patient’s name and the other one had a missing digit on the diagnosis line. I WAS FRUSTRATED BEYOND REASON!!
Yesterday, it came to me as a sharp edged gift and it stung. Could frustration be “anger with God?” Are we silently scolding God when we feel frustrated? Are we expressing words we’d never speak out loud or even admit to ourselves? Do we bury our hidden emotions under a more “polite” form of anger, frustration?” Are we asking in the silent places of our heart, “Why does God allow these things to happen?” Do we unconsciously demand, “These things just shouldn’t happen to me!?” We all seem to believe we are entitled to a stress free life. Anything that deviates from that utopian ideal frustrates us.
You may say, “Even non-believers get frustrated.” But, they are taught to be civil and polite too. Perhaps they are railing at that basic entitlement philosophy: “I don’t deserve this!” Or, “Why do these things happen to me? I’m a good person!” They don’t know that their anger may be with God in whom they don’t even believe. Perhaps to be released from frustration, we need to pray for forgiveness for our anger directed toward Almighty God. Let us pray:

“Oh dear Father in Heaven, your name is precious to us, for by your words we are healed and saved. We pray that your kingdom of love, mercy, grace, and peace may come to dwell in our hearts as it is in the Heavenly kingdom, not because we are worthy but because Jesus Christ was and is worthy. We most humbly and ashamedly bow before you with an awareness of our sin of anger directed toward you, the Holy One. We tricked ourselves into thinking we were just frustrated with life, but we now acknowledge that you alone are Life. Forgive us Father God and heal our souls from the bondage of anger, even the generalized anger we politely call “frustration.” Deliver us from this sin and cast the evil one into the pit, that he may never be able to capture us again. To you, our father, we give all praise and honor and glory and thanks for all you have done for us. In the precious name of your son, our redeemer, we pray. Amen”
Doris
Copyright 2008 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine."