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Angry at God!?!

Angry at God!?!

Angry at God!?!

Three quotes from the teaching on juli 17, 2024

It’s not my anger that should control my life, but my trust in God.

When I suppress my anger, I become bitter – but when I lay it down before God, I become free.

Anger often stems from a lack of perspective – God sees the whole picture, where I see fragments.

Short description of the teaching

Encouragement to explore anger, its roots, and significance in the life of faith. Anger can arise when personal expectations are unmet, and when grief or frustration is bottled up. The Bible shows that anger itself is not a sin, but it must be processed and not lead to bitterness or isolation. It’s emphasized that emotions should not control life, but God can use even difficult emotions for transformation and freedom. The journey away from anger requires surrender and forgiveness to turn misunderstandings and bitterness into trust and peace.

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Discipleship,Identity and Forgiveness,Spiritual Life & Prayer,Udfrielser og åndelig krigsførelse

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  • Scriptures from the teaching on 'Angry at God!?!'

Ephesians 4:25-32
Matthew 21:12-17
Mark 3:1-6
Matthew 17:14-21
Proverbs 19:3
2 Samuel 6:1-10
Ecclesiastes 5:1
Job 38:1-19
Job 40:1-14
Ephesians 4:30-32

NB! The summary below is an automatically AI-generated text from the teaching itself. Errors may occur to a greater or lesser degree!!
Watch the whole teaching on YouTube instead!!

  • Summary of the teaching on 'Angry at God!?!'

Andreas Slot-Henriksen discusses how the topic of anger towards God can feel both challenging and necessary in a Christian life. Many experience anger towards God sneaking in, especially when life doesn’t go as expected, and adversity feels unfair or unbearable. It’s crucial to establish that anger is neither wrong nor dangerous if handled honestly, but there’s a risk it can lead to bitterness, isolation, and loss of faith if one refuses to address it. The Bible illustrates several instances where anger is expressed among believers, and how God is not frightened by human emotional outbursts. It’s often easiest to point fingers at God when life’s meaning is lost amidst suffering, death, or severe loss, because questions like “Why does God allow this?” or “Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?” arise.

The Bible makes it clear that bringing your anger before God is far healthier than suppressing or denying the feeling. Anger often masks grief, helplessness, or deep frustration. Sometimes the feeling blocks the ability to see God’s bigger plan, especially when thoughts of injustice or loss of meaning dominate. This is evident in the story of Job, where Job presents his anger to God because he experiences injustice and total meaninglessness amidst suffering. God responds to Job in chapter 38 with: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.” These words open up the perspective that God’s arrangements extend beyond what humans can understand or comprehend. Ultimately, humans must bow to His wisdom and acknowledge their limitations.

Anger towards God often arises when faith is tested by life’s big questions about suffering, loss, and humanity’s limited perspective. The search for meaning and comfort makes the heart long for answers, but Christian faith points out that it’s precisely in helplessness that the relationship with God can deepen. This is also seen with Jonah, who protests against God’s decision to show mercy to the people of Nineveh. Jonah becomes angry because God acts differently than his own desires and expectations, but God shows that His plan is to have mercy where humans seek self-righteous justice. The Bible encourages expressing your anger and lack of understanding, but it’s also necessary to surrender this to God, let His Holy Spirit comfort and heal, and focus on His perspective in humility and dependence.

It’s not unnatural to be angry or frustrated with God’s actions or lack thereof – or with the world’s injustice. Often, there’s a longing for meaning and closeness behind the anger, and the courage to be honest about the feeling is a prerequisite for God to bring new direction or comfort. The Bible advises: “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Ephesians 4:26-27). Here, the boundary for anger is drawn: Humans may bring frustration and rebellion forward, but it must not be allowed to grow and take root, turning into resentment and bitterness that close off the relationship with God and others. Processing anger primarily involves acknowledging and opening up to the feeling, examining its roots, and taking responsibility to turn it into prayer, trust, and willingness to understand God’s will – even when it’s hard to grasp.

The teaching also addresses how anger must not become an excuse to give up on community or isolate oneself. On the contrary, anger should be brought forward in trust that God can handle honesty and deep emotions. Often, new freedom arises when one dares to openly present anger, both in prayer and conversation. Questions like “When is it justified to be angry?” and “What can I do to break free from anger that threatens to derail my life or faith?” are posed. The answer is to humbly approach God, be willing to explore the deepest layers behind your feelings, and not let anger control thoughts or actions. Truth, forgiveness, and God’s perspective must prevail so that the relationship is maintained despite questions, failures, or lack of understanding.

Examples from the Christian community are included, where people have prayed together with individuals harboring deep anger towards God – over loss, injustice, lack of answers, or inexplicable trials. Instead of rejecting or denying the anger, it is presented in prayer and an open heart to God. Through this process, many experience that bitterness and anger lose their power, and God meets them with comfort, sets them free, and provides opportunities for restoration and peace. Anger not only points to weakness but also to vulnerability and a longing for reconciliation and wholeness. The most important thing is that anger must never become a permanent state but should be brought before God again and again so that His light, comfort, and wisdom can enter.

It is also mentioned that anger often covers other, more hidden needs or wounds in life – insecurity, longing for love, fear, or distrust. Therefore, it is essential to bring your entire emotional life to God, even what you would prefer to hide away. It can lead to release and drive towards healing when you acknowledge these things together with God and in safe relationships. Finally, the focus is directed towards joy, freedom, and transformation: When anger no longer controls but becomes an opportunity to seek God more deeply, faith will grow, and life will be marked by more freedom, even if not all questions are answered.

Quote from the teaching:
“Don’t be afraid of your emotions. Take them as a gift. But they must never control you. It’s you together with God who should control them.“

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You just can’t help but feel encouraged when you hear how good God is in so many different ways. It’s just, it’s just, it’s just amazing after such a fantastic time of worship, and then it might seem a bit out of place to have a topic called “Angry at God?!” But nonetheless, I’ve brought it up because it’s an important topic.

I’ve certainly met many believers over the years who, at some point in their lives, have found themselves angry at God, which isn’t very pleasant, and where you can really fall into bitterness, where you can fall into a pit, and it can be hard to climb back out. Some can go so far as to actually lose their faith, and that’s why I just felt it’s so important, it’s so important to address this: Why do we get angry at God? Is it sometimes okay to be angry at God? What is anger, anyway? Was Jesus angry? If he was angry, and we’re supposed to be like him, what then? Or wasn’t he angry? There are many questions, find a few more, and we’ll take the next section.

So, I started by hopping over to Aarhus University’s website because they are very interesting people who have a lot to say about many things. We’ll just leave it at that, but they do have something to say about anger, which I’ve taken from their magazine, unipress.dk, and I just want to read a little bit from it, and this is from people who have researched what anger is.

It says here, I’ll just take an excerpt: “Anger tends to manifest between people and can lead to all kinds of atrocities, from neighbor disputes, domestic violence, child abuse, civil war, and persecution to mass extermination. The victims are in the danger zone. If you suppress, thereby prolonging your anger, you can be struck by illness because the state physiologically wears on the body. Clear connections have been found between strong anger and an increased risk of both blood clots and strokes. Strokes can especially occur when blood pressure acutely rises during intense anger beyond what the fragile blood vessels in the brain can withstand, so they burst like balloons that are overinflated. A study showed that medical students, who at the age of 25 were widely angry but otherwise completely healthy, were five times more likely than others to have dangerously high blood pressure when examined 25 years later. Suppression of anger can lead to psychosomatic illness, but of course, there’s also no solution in just letting loose. If we vent our anger in thoughtless anger or even violent behavior, we can not only harm others but also push them away from us, and then we become lonely in the long run. That is also life-threatening. Loneliness is unfortunately associated with a higher risk of illness and early death.”

Wow, that’s really wild, and it’s actually wild when we start to look biblically at what anger is, what anger does, what the Bible says about anger. When I tried to shed light on this, I thought: Who is it from the Bible where we experience anger? And the first one I thought of was a man who was simply frustrated with God and didn’t want to obey, who ran away and ended up being swallowed by a giant fish. Yes, it was good old Jonah.

What happens with Jonah is that he is chosen by God to go out and tell the city of Nineveh: “You need to repent, or else God will destroy your city.” And Jonah, he didn’t…

Want to do it for many reasons, but finally. I won’t go too much into the story because it’s a bit long. No, it’s not even that long. Go home and read it, go home and listen to Birte’s teaching about Jonah and the whale. But what happens is that he goes into the city, and he says: You need to repent, and the city repents. The whole city goes into fasting, and something happens inside Jonah that might not be so good.

It says here, this is Jonah 3 from verse 10: When God saw that they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring the disaster on them that he had threatened. But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord: “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

And this is a really, really fantastic piece because Jonah actually gets angry. He gets angry because things didn’t go as he wished. He gets angry because things didn’t go as he imagined, that God is that God who just wants to destroy. Now I’ve wasted so much time, and I’ve told the city, and it’s been a struggle, and just think, I’ve fled, and you made me be swallowed by a whale, and it’s been terrible, and finally, I come and proclaim that they will be destroyed. And what do you do? Nothing. Get it together, God. I’ve wasted my days on this.

And that’s what he has, this bitterness. But Jonah was in God’s plan, and did Jonah really have any right to be angry at God over this? No, he actually didn’t. But when we look in the book of Ephesians, it’s actually really interesting, it actually says that we can be angry. It says in chapter 4, verses 25 to 32: Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. No unwholesome talk should come out of your mouths, and just notice what it says here: You can be angry, but do not sin. At the same time, it says, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. This means that anger should not last so long that it turns into bitterness. Further down, it also says, no unwholesome word should come out of your mouths, only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

So it’s clear: We have the right to be angry, but it should be a controlled anger, an anger that doesn’t make us explode, an anger that allows us to go to bed at night feeling good, an anger that lets us still seek our heavenly Father.

When is it okay to be angry? What is it okay to be angry about? Is it okay to be angry when the dishes aren’t done? Is it okay to be angry when you forget a message you were told? What’s okay? When is it okay to be angry? How should we be angry, and can we even be angry at God?

James talks about it too, in the Book of James, chapter one, verses 19 to 21: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” Okay, so anger doesn’t achieve anything. Again, it says we can be angry, but we should be slow to anger. This means we should think it through.

And I think: Well, how do we act? How should we view what is right? How should we determine when it’s okay to be angry? Because anger is often driven by some emotion, I think. Well, let’s look at what Jesus did, because he is our teacher. He is the one we should follow. He is our master, our king, our lord.

What did he do? I think the most well-known example of Jesus getting angry is at the temple. In Matthew 21, verses 12 to 17: “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.'” Just picture that: He comes in, turns everything upside down, and yells at them. Wow, the man!

Is that okay? Is it okay to act like that? Is it holy? Yes, it is. Why? Because this anger wasn’t driven by selfish motives. Now I’m angry about my needs, my feelings. Now I’m angry because I didn’t get what I needed. But this is an anger where you stand up for your heavenly Father in righteousness. It’s a completely different kind of anger. This is a holy anger.

And the result of this anger is amazing. Because if we read the next verse, it actually says: “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” Right, he just stood there yelling at all those money changers, overturned all the tables, and then it says: “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” So the fruit of Jesus’ anger wasn’t evil, wasn’t hatred, wasn’t bitterness, but the fruit was that those in need actually came to him.

Yes, it caused a stir, because it then says: “But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant. ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ they asked him.” But Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

So the fruit of Jesus’ anger wasn’t bad. It wasn’t a rotten fruit, but a good fruit, and he stood up.

And pointed out, hey, look here, for reverence for my Father in heaven. A little later, I won’t read it now, but a little later in Mark 3, the first six verses, you can read how he actually gets angry at the Pharisees. We have another example where Jesus is actually angry and really rebukes his disciple. It’s found in Matthew 17, verses 14 and onwards.

This is the example where the disciples start praying for a boy filled with demons, and they just can’t cast out these demons. And it says from verse 16: I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him. Jesus exclaimed: You unbelieving and perverse generation. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to me.

Just imagine standing there. Just imagine being a disciple. Jesus, listen to this: You unbelieving and perverse generation. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? I think sometimes he says that to me when I don’t get what he’s saying. I think sometimes he says that to each one of us. God, won’t you speak to me and give me an answer? It’s in my word, so read it.

And he has every right to be angry with me sometimes because I’m thick-headed. The problem is, sometimes it turns around, and you think: Why am I not hearing from God? Why don’t I… God, honestly, get it together. You said this, and you said that, and now I’m left alone, and you’re not answering my prayers. Why? Then you get frustrated, and for some, it can turn into direct anger.

But we don’t have the right to be angry at God. It certainly doesn’t lead to anything good, because if we look at how anger arises, the anger we often feel, when it comes, it’s often a selfishly driven anger, based on a need I have, or a lack of a need. Anger can arise, just to give some examples, it arises in connection with grief, you can be really sad, you can’t express it, you get frustrated, and instead of, for example, coming to God, you took my father, you simply can’t do that, why? Why did you take my father?

At one point, we prayed for a woman, and she was really demonized, really. When she came in, she was trembling all over, she couldn’t even be in her own skin. We had planned to sit and have lunch with them, and she started, she sat there, and something was happening inside her, what? I just can’t handle it, it’s just completely, I can just completely, uh. Okay, do you think we should just go in and pray for you now? Yes, we should. Okay, so we got up from this lunch, and we went in, and we began to pray for her.

And three seconds later, she was rolling around on the floor like a roaring lion, and a demon manifested so violently in her, and we struggled for a while with this demon, couldn’t really get it to leave, there was something it was holding onto. There was a right, so we said to her: Tell me, do you have any unresolved bitterness? Is there something you haven’t forgiven in your life? She sat and thought for a bit, then said: Yes, I do, when my father died, I was… I got so angry at God, I just couldn’t understand it. I was so angry at Him, and I still don’t understand it.

Okay, so you’re simply angry at God, so angry at God. So what you’re saying is that Satan did something in your father’s life that you’re blaming God for now. And then a light went on for her, and suddenly, oh, we put some worship music on in the living room, went out, and she spent time with Jesus alone, forgave, apologized, asked for His forgiveness. Then we came back in.

Again, we prayed for her very briefly, and the demon left. Such anger, anger towards God, is not Luther’s success, but it actually gives an entry point for Satan in one’s life. Anger can also come because of physical pain, for example. I don’t know if you know this, you can suddenly do something and stub your toe into a chair, and it just hurts like crazy, and there are just some people who have a temper, which sometimes makes it so that instead of thinking: Thank you because that’s not my pain, Jesus, and moving on, then… Ah no, you probably don’t know that, but I know some people who have experienced such things.

And when it’s this kind of anger that comes out, it’s just not healthy. Okay, does it stop? Yes, it stops pretty quickly. Does it affect anyone? No, it doesn’t. Does it harm? It depends on how angry you get and how intense it can become. But what’s often funny is – or I don’t know if it’s funny, but it’s at least thought-provoking – that if you’re with someone who hurts themselves in that way and starts shouting so loudly, a poisonous atmosphere spreads, and people keep their mouths shut. Isn’t that peculiar?

Whereas if you hurt yourself, it can really hurt, to: Ah Jesus, thank you because this is just… this is just not mine. Thank you because you are my healer, wow. That’s where you really know the heart. That’s where you can really experience your heart, and you’re completely through and have brainwashed yourself with God’s word many times, that when you hurt yourself, curses and swearing come out, because that’s what you used to do in the old days. That’s where you can really experience: Wow, I have renewed thoughts. I have a renewed mind.

Something else that can also give anger towards God is this lack of revelation into the future. God, seriously man, I’ve been asking you about this for so long, and I just get no answers, and then the anger and bitterness and frustration grow. Sometimes you can also get angry because God is leading you in a different direction than you want. I mean, I didn’t get angry, but just to give an example: I had in my mind that when we were to find a new place where we could be many people, we found the coolest Morten Korch place, newly renovated, with just enough space for some people where we could praise Jesus together, and we wouldn’t have to lift a finger. That was what I had in my head. That’s what I thought: That’s it, that’s what we’re going for. We’re going for the Morten Korch place. We are.

And we searched everywhere, and we found all the Morten Korch places, and there weren’t that many. But then we sometimes compromised a bit and said: Okay, it doesn’t have to be Morten Korch. It can just be nearby, and they don’t fit or something, but God just closed the doors one by one by one by one. And then He sends us out to a rotten bakery, man, seriously, what is that? Were any of you here at the start? There was nothing but flour, there was potato flour and cornflour, and what was it, something else flour everywhere. Everything just had to… then you can get that: Seriously God, what are you thinking?

We’ve spent hours washing off flour, as recently as now when we’ve been building halls. The lamps we’ve hung up have been here. What did we find? Flour, flour, flour, flour, flour everywhere, that had to be washed off. And even though they’ve been washed off, there’s actually – I haven’t dared to say – but there are actually on some of the lamps up there, there are still flour traces, because when it hardens, flour comes back on, and I didn’t get that washed off. Sorry, but they hang very high up, and they are really, really nice and really beautiful. But anger is often a…

Result of you not being dead to yourself. Oops, anger. What is often conditioned by you thinking: “I deserved better, I deserved differently, this is not okay.” Sometimes we can get angry because we thought God said something to us, so we went hard after it. At some point, it dawned on us, maybe, that it wasn’t God who said it at all. It was my flesh that said it, or the devil in disguise, and then you get that again: “Honestly God, why didn’t you stop me before?” Because your flesh was so busy with what you wanted, because you thought it was God, that you didn’t stop and actually listen.

But everything else in you took over. Your flesh took over, your excitement took over, your fear took over, whatever took over, and then you really forget to seek into God: “Is this really you?” Sometimes you can also experience that the anger you can get can actually be demonically conditioned. You can experience that suddenly out of the blue, anger can be ignited, such an anger, an irritation, a bitterness, where you have no idea where it comes from. It just comes, it’s just there, like really: “Oh, just angry at everyone.” You go around and start spouting all sorts of stupid comments, because if you really try to keep your mouth shut, it becomes an endless battle where you actually feel really bad inside, and where it’s not your anger, but where the devil uses a little trick to get this irritation out on you, out between your ribs.

If he had said, “What’s happening?” You get tired of yourself. You get angry with yourself. You start condemning yourself. The devil, he scores 2-0 or 3-0 against you. And when you experience things like that, where you can’t control it yourself, it’s super important to do something about it. Get a brother or sister to pray for you: “Hey, I don’t know why this is happening, I don’t want it. It shouldn’t be in my life. I’m trying to stop it. I can’t. Pray for me. Is there something in me? Then get rid of it. Is there a demon in me? Then cast that demon out. I don’t want it, it shouldn’t be there.”

We have an example that’s actually wild, which I just want to touch on regarding anger and God’s response to it. So we’re back in the Book of Job, Job chapters 38, 39, 40, the last chapters here. Job has argued with God and spoken negatively about his situation. This is before the cross. Satan is allowed to attack Job, but not Job himself, so Job loses everything, his family, his animals, everything, because Satan is just sure that Job will turn his back on God.

But Job, deep down, deep down, he knows: “My relationship with my Father is right, for I haven’t sinned. I haven’t done anything I shouldn’t have. I’ve followed him to the letter, and no one should come and say otherwise, because I know that’s how I’ve acted.” And all his friends come and accuse him: “Well, you must see, Job, you’ve done something, and look now, and honestly, Job.” And Job defends himself every single time, and all his friends come: “Get it together, you can see you would never be in such misery if it wasn’t because you had a lot of sin in your life or had behaved in the most ungodly way or whatever.” And Job just holds on: “I know what I’ve done, and I know that no one should come and say that I’ve sinned against my God, because my God means everything to me.”

We kind of check it, the Book of Job, very briefly, but he still argues with God. He gets frustrated and

I can understand that Job gets frustrated. Then it says from verse 38: Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.

Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? And it goes on and on with the wildest, biggest questions. When you get these questions, you just have to stand there: Wow, okay God. Who am I? What do I know?

Then he continues in chapter 40: And the Lord said to Job: Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him! Then Job answered the Lord: I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more. Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like his? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty. Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at all who are proud and bring them low, and so on.

God is wise, and Job completely shuts up, because he knows very well he can’t answer. And often I think we come to God sometimes and blame. Sometimes we come and say: God, seriously, can’t you see? And try to understand, can’t you? Come on God. He can understand, God understands better than you. You’re just a creation, he is your creator. God, he has the perspective.

And I often think that when anger comes towards God, or anger comes in life, it’s because we lack perspective. We forget to see things elevated in a perspective where we can get to see God’s plan. But it says that God’s plan is revealed in part, and it’s difficult for people because we need to know everything from day one. But let me tell you, if I had known from day one what we were getting into, I would have run away screaming. It was too big a bite.

But God put me in it, and I love standing side by side with my heavenly Father as a teacher and fantastic people who sometimes come and help. Wow, he’s taught me so many things that I wouldn’t want to be without. But had I known beforehand, I would have thought it was too hard a bite. I will say, you should never suppress your anger, but you should get to a point where anger can’t have a place in your life because you don’t let it be there. The problem is if we suppress the anger.

Then we feel bad, and then we get bottled up, and it becomes a mess inside. You shouldn’t get to the point where the anger is there, and where you just think: I better keep my mouth shut because I mustn’t be angry, so I keep my mouth shut now. Oh, I’m just so angry, but I don’t say anything to anyone, and I don’t say anything to myself, and I don’t say anything to God, and I keep my mouth shut. I’m angry.

That’s not how it should be, you won’t get anywhere with that, but you move forward when you can lay your anger down before His throne, at His feet. Forgive me, I get angry God, I’ve lost perspective in this. Teach me to come back. Help me so I can see the perspective, if nothing else. Help me to trust that you have the overarching perspective in my life, and he does, if you let him have it, then he has it.

Often, it’s fear—fear of the future, fear of what we’re facing—that makes it hard for us to completely let go. But ideally, we should reach a point where anger isn’t bottled up inside and doesn’t need to be unleashed either.

We had an experience with a woman who came to us for prayer. She shared that she had been to other Christians before and told them about her life. She had a tough childhood, and it was quite natural for her to be very angry with her father. She was told: You need to go out, take a stick, go to the beach, and scream and shout at your father, pounding the stick into the ground to really let out your anger. It’s important to get it out, to release it, so it’s not yours anymore.

So, she went down, took the stick, and started hitting the sand, yelling and screaming at her father and everything that had happened, because she needed to vent, and the anger had to leave her. When she came and told us this, and we began to pray for her, we started by setting her free from a demon of anger because she had opened herself up to a whole army of anger demons.

The devil knows this, and he uses anger in very malicious ways, often without you realizing it. He can turn feelings into anger, turn sorrow into anger, turn fear into anger, and transform all these emotions into anger because we can’t understand and lay them at the cross, because we lack trust in Jesus to have the big picture.

So, I just want to tell you: Trust him. When anger arises, try to look inward. Ask yourself: Why am I getting angry? What is it? What is feeding this anger in me? Why did I get angry just now? What triggered it? Then come forward and lay it down before him, because often anger is a reaction to something else happening in your life.

Dive into what’s causing the anger, clean up those things in your life, work on your trust in your heavenly Father. Trust that he has it under control, and you know what, it’s perfectly okay not to have everything under control. I don’t either, and I’m proud of it because it means my heavenly Father can step in.

I try to manage the things he sets before me, but overall, it’s him who should lead. Where are we going, God? That’s my question. It’s not: God, shouldn’t we go there? No, God, where are we going? Ask the question: God, where are we going? God, how do I lay down these feelings I have inside?

It doesn’t mean you should be devoid of feelings, because God can use emotions wonderfully.

Fantastic, but it means that emotions should never control you; you should control your emotions. You should do this together with your heavenly Father. Don’t be afraid of your emotions. Take them as a gift, but they should never control you.

It’s you, together with God, who should manage them.

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