All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
When I Am Down
When you feel down, beat-up or overwhelmed, what does God use to pick you up and get you through?
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Amanda,
I'm still kicking :-)
What's up?
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator
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Amanda,
Broken at salvation and mending the rest of your life, being built up and encouraged as the bride of Christ..
After salvation we are chastened when needed and broken in areas if necessary in order for growth to continue. The chastening and breaking are always for the good fo the believer with the goal being growth in Christ.
The anger or meanness tends to come from the hurt in one's past.
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator
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Amanda,
I will be in and out through out the day.
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator -
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Amanda,
You have to start with the willful act of forgiving them before the Father. You cannot do this if you are still holding on to it with a tight grip of hate. You have to be willing to let it go seeking healing, not retribution. If you truly want to forgive them then God will work in you to replace the anger and anxiety with peace and calm. This too may be a process, but it begins with you laying the offense at God’s feet and trusting God to heal you.
Forgiveness does not require you to fellowship with the person that hurt you, especially if they are unrepentant regarding the act. What we often find, though, is that when we have gone through forgiving and healing when the person, if they ever do, comes to you and asks for you to forgive them you are able to forgive, because it has already been dealt with before God, and often at that time, not now, a restoration of the relationship may be possible because of the healing that will take place when we truly seek to forgive.
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator -
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Amanda,
The power of forgiveness:
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Amanda,
Forgiving someone does not mean that the pain or anger will be gone instantaneously. You start with "Lord, I forgive them, please change my heart. Take the anger and bitterness away. I can't do it on my own." You, based on what you have said, also need God to help you to overcome your anger towards Him. You need to ask Him in this area as well. Before you tell me you have I have a question. Do you really want to forgive or only because that is what everyone tells you you should do?
You cannot change how you feel, but you can be odedient to the command and seek Him to change you in the process as you let go. This will be a process and you have to be patient.
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator
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Amanda,
Short version of above is that you really don't want to forgive based on what you have just stated. You feel you are supposed to forgive, but really don't want to. Nothing will change until you come to the place of being willing to forgive. That is in your hands. When you learn to let go God will begin to bring healing. That sounds harsh on my part, but is simply where you are as stated by you IMO.
Lord Bless,
LT
TheNET Coordinator
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Amen LT and sis Amanda always pray for what you need. Right now you need to want to forgive. so ask God to give you that. :)
Love to you both.
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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Hi Amanda..
This is a good article..
Question: "Is it wrong to be angry with God?"
Answer: Being angry at God is something that many people, both believers and unbelievers, have wrestled with throughout time. When something tragic happens in our lives, we ask God the question, “Why?” because it is our natural response. What we are really asking Him, though, is not so much “Why, God?” as “Why me, God?” This response indicates two flaws in our thinking. First, as believers we operate under the impression that life should be easy, and that God should prevent tragedy from happening to us. When He does not, we get angry with Him. Second, when we do not understand the extent of God’s sovereignty, we lose confidence in His ability to control circumstances, other people, and the way they affect us. Then we get angry with God because He seems to have lost control of the universe and especially control of our lives. When we lose faith in God’s sovereignty, it is because our frail, human flesh is grappling with our own frustration with the lack of control we actually have over events. When good things happen, we all too often attribute it to our own achievements and success. When bad things happen, however, we are quick to blame God, and we get angry with Him for not preventing it, which indicates the first flaw in our thinking—that we deserve to be immune to unpleasant circumstances.
Tragedies bring home the awful truth that we are not in charge. All of us think at one time or another that we can control the outcomes of situations, but in reality it is God who is in complete charge of all of His creation. Everything that happens is either caused by or allowed by God. Not a sparrow falls to the ground nor a hair from our head without God knowing about it (Matthew 10:29-31). We can flail about, get angry, and lash out and blame God for what is happening. Yet if we will trust Him and yield our bitterness and pain to Him, acknowledging the prideful sin of trying to force our own will over His, He can and will grant us His peace and strength to get us through any difficult situation (1 Corinthians 10:13). Many believers in Jesus Christ can testify to that very fact. We can be angry with God for many reasons, so we all have to accept at some point that there are things we cannot control or even understand with our finite minds.
Our understanding of the sovereignty of God in all circumstances must be accompanied by our understanding of His other attributes: love, mercy, kindness, goodness, righteousness, justice, and holiness. When we see our difficulties through the prism of God’s Word—which tells us that our loving and holy God works all things together for our good (Romans 8:28), and that He has a perfect plan and purpose for us which cannot be thwarted (Isaiah 14:24, 46:9-10)—we begin to see our problems in a different light. We also know from Scripture that this life will never be one of continual joy and happiness. Rather, Job reminds us that “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7) and that life is short and “full of trouble” (Job 14:1). Just because we come to Christ for salvation from sin does not mean we are guaranteed a life free from problems. In fact, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” but that He has “overcome the world” (John 16:33), enabling us to have peace within, in spite of the storms that rage around us (John 14:27).
One thing is certain: inappropriate anger is sin (Galatians 5:20; Ephesians 4:26-27, 31; Colossians 3:8). Ungodly anger is self-defeating, gives the devil a foothold in our lives, and can destroy our joy and peace if we hang on to it. Holding onto our anger will allow bitterness and resentment to spring up in our hearts. We must confess it to the Lord and then in His forgiveness we can release those feelings to Him. We must go before the Lord in prayer often in our grief, anger, and pain. The Bible tells us in 2 Samuel 12:15-23 that David went before the throne of grace on behalf of his sick baby, fasting, weeping, and praying for him to survive. When the baby passed away, David got up and worshipped the Lord, and then told his servants that he knew where his baby was and that he would someday be with him in God’s presence. David cried out to God during the baby’s illness, and afterward he kneeled before Him in worship. That is a wonderful testimony. God knows our hearts and it is pointless to try to hide how we really feel, so talking to Him about it is one of the best ways to handle our grief. If we do so humbly, pouring out our hearts to Him, He can work through us and in us while we are completely broken, and in the process will make us more like Him.
The bottom line is can we trust God with everything, our very lives and the lives of our loved ones? Of course we can! Our God is compassionate, full of grace and love, and as disciples of Christ we can trust Him with all things. When tragedies happen to us we know God can use them to bring us closer to Him and to perfect our faith, bringing us to maturity and completeness (Psalm 34:18; James 1:2-4), so we can be a comforting testimony to others (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). That is easier said than done, though. It requires a daily surrendering of our own will to His, a faithful study of His attributes as seen in God’s Word, much prayer, and then applying what we learn to our own situation. By doing so, our faith will eventually grow and mature enough to make it easier to trust Him to get us through the next tragedy that most certainly will take place.
So, to answer the question directly, yes, it is wrong to be angry at God. Anger at God is a result of an inability or unwillingness to trust God even when we do not understand what He is doing. Anger at God is essentially telling God that He has done something wrong, which He never does. Does God understand when we are angry, frustrated, or disappointed with Him? Yes, He knows our hearts and He knows how difficult and painful life in this world can be. Does that make it right to be angry with God? Absolutely not. Instead of being angry with God, we should pour out our hearts to God in prayer, and then trust that He is in control and that His plan is perfect.Recommended Resource: Knowing God by J.I. Packer.
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Hi Amanda
I'm glad to hear that you had a good session. We'll pray for continual good sessions. I believe that fear is the root of anger..i agree 100%
God's perfect Love casts out all fear. Here's another article.. another goodie...
Question: "Is it wrong to be frustrated with God?"
Answer: Frustration with God, His ways and His dealings with us is one of the major stumbling blocks for all Christians. There are few Christians who have not been fuming with frustration at the Lord for one reason or another at some point during their walk with Him.
First of all, as always, it is good to look at the Bible characters who suffered from this frustration and how they dealt with it. The first person who comes to mind is Abraham, the great patriarch who, at seventy-five years old, in simple obedience to God, rose up with all his family, servants, flocks and herds, and left his home and his country to journey he knew not where (Genesis 12). All he had was God’s promise of great blessing in return for his obedience and faith, and as a result he became the father of the Hebrew nation.
The most significant part of God’s blessing to Abraham was the promise of a son, as his wife Sarah had been barren (Genesis 15:4). To a man of his day this was a tremendous blight on his life and to his wife a disgrace, so that far beyond any promises of riches and victory over his enemies, this was the most momentous and welcome promise of all.
However, Abraham was human with human weaknesses, and the faith of even this great man of God faltered at times. The years went by and he had just celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday. Sarah herself was seventy-five and well beyond the age of child bearing, so it is hardly surprising that Abraham’s faith in the promise of a son began to waver. His frustration at waiting for the fulfillment of God's promise must have been boundless, so when Sarah, herself also eaten up with the same frustration, suggested to her husband that he take matters into his own hands and produce a son from her maid, Hagar, he listened (Genesis 16:3). As a result Ishmael was born, and we have only to read on from this point to see the enmity and chaos that resulted after the God of the impossible finally caused Sarah to become pregnant and Isaac, the true son of the promise, was born (Genesis 2:1-3).
Another whose story is well known is Jonah, a man who knew only too well what it was to be frustrated with the Lord. This was a man who also heard from God, but didn’t like what he heard (Jonah 1:1-3a). God told him he was to go and warn the heathen people of the great city of Nineveh that if they didn’t change their ways He would destroy them, but that His love and forgiveness awaited them if they repented. Jonah, loathing the idea that the God of the Hebrews could possibly care about this godless and violent people, and after doing all he could to get out of his appointed task, finally obeyed God. He proclaimed God’s message to the Ninevites, convinced that they would not listen and he would have the satisfaction of seeing them slaughtered by a vengeful God. Not only did they thwart his hopes by responding with total repentance (Jonah 3:5-10), but Jonah wasn’t even allowed to keep the leafy gourd that had grown up and sheltered him so comfortably from the blazing sun during the day (Jonah 4:7). Jonah’s seething fury of frustration with God now knew no bounds.
Frustration is simply an emotion which is part of our sinful human nature. As imperfect creatures, our natural tendency is to rebel against God, become angry, disappointed, and frustrated with Him. In Abraham’s case, frustration with the promise that didn’t appear had wearied him to death, so that he weakly gave in to Sarah’s demand that he have a son by her handmaid. He probably also had in mind that Sarah was well past childbearing age, forgetting that nothing is impossible with God.
In Jonah’s case he wanted to keep the God of the Hebrews for the Hebrews alone, but no one is allowed to limit Almighty God. His response to the frustration against the God who refused to conform to his way of thinking was to rage at Him, and he had to be taught an uncomfortable lesson. If he could have so much grief and pity for himself simply because of his discomfort as a result of the loss of his shady gourd, then did not the God of ALL creation have the right to feel pity for a whole city full of people who were ignorant of His very existence?
When we are frustrated with God, we can react in one of two ways. We can shake our fist at Him and turn away from Him, or we can humble ourselves, admit we don’t know all the circumstances, and trust that He will work all things together for our good and His glory. Nowhere in Scripture is this better illustrated than at the cross. Jesus was hanging between two thieves, both of whom were reviling Him. Matthew 27:38-44 tells us that they both mocked Him, hurled insults at Him, and derided Him for not being able to save Himself and them. One reviled Him out of frustration (Luke 23:39), but the other’s frustration turned to repentance and faith, and he asked Jesus to do what only He could–save him–which He did. That thief joined Him in heaven that very day, while the other man went to his death continuing to rage on in unbelief.
The psalmist tells us, “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30). If God’s ways are perfect, then we can trust that whatever He does—and whatever He allows—is also perfect. This may not seem possible to us, but our minds are not God’s mind, as He reminds us in Isaiah 55:8-9. The Christian experiencing frustration with God will find that a simple prayer of humble submission will give far greater comfort than raging and storming against God which, in reality, has all the futility of an ant shaking his fist at an elephant.
Even though God may allow us to storm and rage at Him out of frustration, we must be very careful not to presume too far upon our heavenly Father’s grace and patience. Yes, He will forgive His children and continue to love them, but eventually we should come to our senses and submit to His plan and will for our lives, even when we don’t understand it. Frustration with God comes from a lack of understanding on our part, not from any lack on God’s part. The sooner we learn that lesson, the less frequently we will find ourselves frustrated with God.
Recommended Resource: Wrestling with God: How Can I Love a God I'm Not Sure I Trust? by J.... -
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Permalink Reply by Michael Vernon McEntire on
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Amanda, I don't believe that "He allows sinful choices to run their course" unless He knows that that course is what we, and those connected to us, need. He never relinquishes His Sovereignty, and we are much too precious to Him for Him to just take His hands off the wheel.
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