We all have reasons to be angry or resentful towards ourselves and others, and we often vacillate between the two. But for a little extra flair, we can toss in a side of anger and resentment towards God having hoped He would step in in a way that for whatever reason we didn’t see Him do.
It is really so important to identify the reason the anger is there even if there are many layers to that understanding.
Often we are even right to be angry about various things that happen to us while we are here on earth because it’s simply not intended to be like this.
What we were intended for was perfect unity in Eden with the Lord, where there was no sin or shame or conflict of any kind.
And while it is the truth that believers are on our way back to that reality, we are in the interim, where the enemy affects us and our experience is influenced by the curse that the world is under due to Adam’s fall on behalf of the entire human race.
Because God loved us so much He sent us Jesus so that through His death and His resurrection power living in us, we would have the ability to partner with Him this side of eternity.
I’m that partnership we get the opportunity to dictate the direction our hearts will go when confronted with the realities of our rights to be angry and grow in resentment.
We have a choice, fester and stew in anger and waste our lives in the self-destruction mode that anger causes, or will we allow the Lord to move us to forgiveness of God, self, and others?
It’s important to acknowledge that God is always perfect and never does anything wrong. However, as limited beings with our own perspectives and understanding, there are moments when we struggle to comprehend why He allows certain things to happen. Although He doesn’t require forgiveness for any wrongdoing on His part, we do need to forgive Him for the accusations we may hold in our hearts towards Him.
To do that we all have to make a choice either we choose to trust His sovereignty or ourselves.
Will we press in to Him and His process of making all things new and cooperate with Him in His mission here to bring His Kingdom, come His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, until we get there where we have assurance all will be made right?
Will we welcome the chance to serve the King of Kings while our full gratification is delayed?
Will we lay our lives down and take up our cross daily and faithfully follow Jesus, even if that means choosing to not stay angry when we have “every right” to be. Will we walk away from anger and follow Jesus on the journey of forgiveness. We embark on the journey of forgiving ourselves, God, and others (even when they aren’t sorry), just as Christ forgave us while we were still sinners and then access the peace that passes understanding that He’s offers us.
To do this part of the journey with Jesus we have to have great trust in His sovereignty that somehow He is God above it all, and we are not, and He absolutely has a plan, and it is good.
XO