BEING ANGRY WITH GOD – Part 1 of 2

"Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.”  (Psalm 4:4 NKJV)

Author John Killinger tells about the manager of a minor league baseball team who got so frustrated with his center fielder’s performance that he jerked him out of the game and played the position himself. The first hard-hit ball that came to the manager took a bad hop and smashed into his mouth. His next play was a high fly ball that he lost in the sun -- until it smacked him in the forehead. The third ball that came his way was a hard line drive that flew between his hands and popped him in the eye. Furious, the manager ran off the field to the dugout, grabbed the center fielder by the shirt and shouted, “You’ve got center field so messed up, even I can’t play it!” (From “750 Engaging Illustrations for Pastors, Teachers, and Writers”)

When it comes to the difficult seasons of our lives, God is the subject of more than His share of fingerpointing. A seventeen-year-old accused of burning down a church in Nashville, Indiana explained at his trial that he took a cigarette lighter to the nearly century-old building because, in his words, “I was angry with God.”

One woman, having lost both her husband and son in separate accidents, posted a notice on the internet that declared: “I am ANGRY at God. I am VERY ANGRY!” She dared to say out loud what you and I really feel sometimes. When our world is turned upside down, it’s easy to believe that God is the culprit.

God understands our anger, and when we pray, it’s a good thing to tell Him what we honestly feel. But sustained bitterness toward the Lord who loves us is irrational and unwise. 

-- David Jeremiah in “Keep the Faith: How to Stand Strong in a World Turned Upside Down”

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BEING REAL WITH GOD – Part 1 of 2

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  (Matthew 6:5-6 NIV)

Many of us have struck spiritual poses in prayer. We have a hard time being ourselves. Praying before others, we have a tendency to talk more to people in the room than to God. Even in private prayer, sincerity doesn’t come easily. We talk to God as if He requires formal language, as we would talk to some governmental authority we didn’t know well. Or we speak in a kind of fake biblical language we’ve cobbled together from the Scriptures or other embellished prayers we’ve heard. Prayer becomes a performance, and we have to work at it.

God simply wants us to talk with Him. Talk is simple communication, and it doesn’t need to be dressed up. We should talk to Him as we’d talk to a best friend -- simply being ourselves, being totally honest without worrying how it might sound.

Have you ever listened to a public prayer and really liked a turn of phrase? And you thought to yourself, That’s awesome -- I’m going to put that into my prayer repertoire! We pick up phrases like these: traveling mercies; lead, guide, and direct; the nourishment of our bodies. Perhaps we believe those are special phrases that establish some kind of spiritual superiority. But it’s not God language. He wants to hear from the real me and the real you.

Who we’re pretending to be doesn’t match who we are on the inside. Yet what God asks could not be simpler. His invitation says, “Come as you are. Please don’t dress up. Don’t decorate your language. Don’t put on a show. Just be at home with Me. Be real. My place is your place.” 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: When Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

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