Angry At God?

"Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ nor give place to the devil."

Ephesians 4:26-27

Anger is a natural response for people, and it is not always a sinful one.  It is possible to be angry without sin, but the occasions are very rare.  Paul makes clear the connection between remaining angry and giving place to the devil - which makes us exponentially susceptible to sin.  When Jonah became angry after God relented from destroying Nineveh, God asked Him a question we do well to consider when we are angry:  "Is it right for you to be angry?"  If we would answer honestly, much of our anger has nothing to do with God or righteousness at all.  The driver behind much anger we experience is pride and self.  It is fuelled by perceived infringement on our rights or desires, and it is nothing about God being robbed of His just due or being sinned against.

Is it possible to be justified in anger towards God?  No, for there can be no righteous indignation directed towards a righteous, holy God.  In his book Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges wrote this:

"Let me make a statement loud and clear.  It is never okay to be angry at God.  Anger is a moral judgment, and in the case of God, it accuses Him of wrongdoing.  It accuses God of sinning against us by neglecting us or in some way treating us unfairly.  It also is often a response to our thinking that God owes us a better deal in life than we are getting.  As a result, we put God in the dock of our own courtroom...I acknowledge that believers can and do have momentary flashes of anger at God.  I have experienced this myself.  But we should quickly recognise those occurrences as the sins that they are and repent of them." (Bridges, Jerry. Respectable Sins. NavPress, Published in Alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2016. pg. 123)

I don't know I have ever heard it put the way Jerry Bridges did when he asserted, "Anger is a moral judgment."  This is very perceptive and helpful to deal with the source and reason behind anger we experience.  It is good to recognise there are moral judgments I accept as right and wrong and these do not necessarily always line up with God's righteous judgment.  I have been angry before at people I believed were in the wrong, but my anger revealed it was really I who was sinning.  When we are offended it can often be another way of saying we are angry.  Being "offended" pins the blame of our anger on someone else, but we still must own it.  Feelings of frustration or annoyance can also be anger in disguise.  Praise the LORD He knows our hearts better than we do, and better yet God is able to cleanse them!

Brothers and sisters, let us not give place to the devil in our lives through anger - especially when we are angry towards God.  He is altogether righteous and good, and we are not.  We can always bring our anger to God in repentance, and He is able to help in profound ways sowing to the flesh through exhibiting our anger could never accomplish.  How good it is to be set free from the bondage of anger and bitterness!