Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.” I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John.” John 7:24-28

In the passage above, Jesus was referring to John the Baptist. He praised him in front of a large crowd of Jews who had weaned on stories about the great prophets of Israel. Jesus declared that among men and prophets, there were none greater than John. When you consider Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah and Isaiah….that is quite a statement. Especially, when you consider that John never performed a recorded miracle. He didn’t write extensive books or prophecies against nations. He didn’t have a forty year career of prophesying and counseling kings. His ministry was brief, remarkably unrecorded, and he even had moments when he wondered if Jesus were the Messiah after all.

So what made him great and what makes us great in the kingdom of God? We can tell from the passage that John had been given a ministry of preparation – preparing the hearts of Israel to recognize and receive Jesus as their Messiah. He had one job. He pointed the broken to Jesus and confronted the self-righteous about their hypocrisy. No miracles, no extensive writings, no supernatural rescues. What he did bring was a few short years of uncompromised preaching about the one who was coming. He was totally faithful in the purpose that God had ordained for him.

We are clearly told by the Psalmist (Ps. 139:16) that everyday ordained for us was written in God’s book before one of them came to pass. The things written before our birth are the purposes of God for our life on the earth. His desire is that we discover and fulfill those purposes. Perhaps, our greatness in heaven will be measured by how well we fulfill God’s purposes for us. Those purposes will look different for each of us so we cannot compare ourselves to others or what they do for Jesus. Our call is to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit and then be as faithful as possible to fulfill what God has called us to so. I think that was part of John’s greatness. That was certainly the greatness of Jesus. On the other hand, too many of us pursue our own purposes in this life and then expect God to bless our pursuit.

Sometimes we feel insignificant in the things we find ourselves doing for Jesus. We may serve quietly in the shadows week after week, we may never build a great church, we may never lead hundreds to Christ…but if we are faithful with the opportunities put before us, we can be deemed great in the kingdom of heaven. In a biography of Billy Graham we are told that he was born in a farmhouse outside Charlotte, North Carolina. He grew up on a dairy farm. When he was sixteen he was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was considered “too worldly.” However, a farm worker named Albert McMakin, persuaded Graham to go hear an evangelist named Mordecai Ham. Graham was converted during a series of those revival meetings held by Ham and the rest is history.

Before reviewing the biography, I never heard of McMakin or Ham, but their willingness to fulfill their purpose in a moment offered to them was essential in the gospel being preached to hundreds of thousands of people with untold numbers of responses. If McMakin had not been working on a farm and had not pointed Billy Graham to a revival, who knows if God’s purposes for Graham would have been fulfilled. We tend to measure things by worldly standards (numbers, name recognition, magazine covers, etc.), but heaven measures them differently Fulfilling God’s purposes for us is the thing…not my will but yours be done.

We may not always be clear on the purposes, but if we sincerley want to fulfill everything written in his book, I’m confident God will lead us into moments when those purposes can be fulfilled…even if we are not always aware we are doing so. I’m also convinced that sometimes we turn down his small purposes while waiting for the one we think will carry more weight. But the principle is that we must be faithful in little before he will make us faithful in much.

God does not exist to fulfill our longings for the things of this world, but we exist to fulfill his longings for us. And when we fulfill his longings for us, we experience his pleasure and his blessings. Let me encourage you to think about his purposes for your life in the days ahead and ask him to reveal those to you. Each purpose is significant but only God may know how significant a farm hand can be extending one invitation to a worldly teenager on a little farm in North Carolina.

Do you ever find yourself experiencing a sense of longing for something that you can’t quite identify? Maybe it is the sense that something unidentifiable is still missing that would make your life complete. Maybe it’s a haunting feeling that someday you will lose something or someone that that is very central to your life right now and that anticipated sense of loss releases a kind of sadness that is vague but very real. Have you ever thought about things you love in his world that you might miss when you have departed…even if your destination is heaven. Maybe it is the warmth of family, the sound of children laughing, a sunrise on the ocean, stars sprinkled through a desert sky, or mist rising off a mountain lake. Maybe it is the warmth of holidays or a wedding that you sense you will never experience again once you leave this world.

As believers, we anticipate heaven and know that something marvelous waits for us there, but somehow we sense we will still miss things we have come to love and appreciate on planet earth. We may even feel guilty for wanting to hold onto this physical experience more than we want to go to heaven as if that is a “worldly” rather than a “spiritual” mindset. Part of the challenge is that most of us have a very vague notion of what heaven will be like. The stereotypes of culture about heaven aren’t helpful. You know … the idea that we will drift on clouds playing harps or that we all become etherial and angelic beings without substance…spirits floating around with little to do. There is also the pervasive view that we will simply worship God every moment of eternity and in doing so, lose our sense of uniqueness and identity. We may believe we will just be part of enormous crowd declaring the praises of God…forever. As much as I love worship and God is worthy of it, that sounds mind numbing after a thousand years.

Perhaps, we also wonder if we will learn in heaven, create in heaven, achieve in heaven, build in heaven, compete in heaven, have fun in heaven or simply live an eternity that, if we are honest, may sound boring and unfulfilling…yet, at the same time, we know we will be thrilled to be in the presence of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It seems confusing.

But here is the good news about heaven. Heaven, ultimately, will be on this earth that we were designed to inhabit. If we read scripture carefully and literally for the most part, God’s plan is not for us to drift in some ethereal spiritual realm forever, but to inhabit the earth that he will restore to its original state before sin. Remember, he looked at his creation, including man, and called it all “Good!” Solomon said that God has placed eternity in our hearts. Because eternity is the idea of everlasting and everlasting means a state that goes back forever as well as forward forever, some of our unfulfilled longings may be for the earth we were created for before sin and the curse prompted a down grade. When I feel sad that I will miss the sunrise, a spring rain, or the Grand Tetons when I transition to heaven, I may be longing for the very things God initially intended for me to enjoy forever.

Paul tells is in Romans 8 that the creation is groaning to he released from its bondage to decay and will be released when God’s children are resurrected at the end. At the resurrection, we will receive bodies no longer subject to decay or death and so will all of creation. There is, of course, a heaven now that we call Paradise that seems to be an intermediate heaven where the saved will wait in comfort for the end of time. But it is not all that heaven will be because heaven will be on earth and God will dwell with his people there. All indications are that it will be much like the earth we know but without sin, without death, without natural disasters, and will be an incredible upgrade in every respect.

It was God’s original intent that man would rule over the earth, develop it, cultivate it, establish godly culture with godly art, music and architecture. God will not give up on his original intent for men. I believe we can anticipate learning, discovery, amazing art and music, and certainly festivals. The heavenly Jerusalem will settle on this earth and we will go up to the great city to celebrate God and all of his blessings. We will all be family and so our sense of family and familiarity will not wane but will be enhanced. There will be animals such that the lion will lie down with the lamb. Who knows what technology or travel or music will be like, but it surely will be part of heaven. What we won’t have is pain, hospitals, war, crime, loss, grief, or cemeteries.

We need to think more about heaven in concrete ways. We don’t need to feel as if we will never see the things we love about this world again, but will see them and experience them as huge upgrades to what already thrills us. We don’t even need to feel unspiritual when we think we might prefer earth to heaven, because in the end, they will be the same. So the next time you see something or hear something on this world that takes your breath away, thank God for it and look forward to being thrilled by even greater things when we live under the new heaven and on the new earth!

This is the final installment of this Mad at God series. I simply want to add a few thoughts and a general summary. Again, I am writing this series because I continue to encounter believers who feel that God has betrayed them, kept something good from them, or failed to keep some promise. Inevitably, they have distanced themselves from God and his church. Often they are married and their anger hinders their spouse’s and even their children’s relationship with the Lord.

I want to reiterate that being disappointed with God is not the same as being angry with him or taking up some offense against the Father. I can be disappointed and confused without judging God to be unfaithful. But if I am angry with him, it seems I must have judged him to be untrue, unfaithful or uncaring. In every instance in which I have heard people vent their anger, they have judged God to be unfaithful for breaking promises he never made or for not trusting him to have made a decision in their best interest.

It is not uncommon for us to pray fervently for something, and when it is apparent that God has turned down our request, we feel cheated. After all, the Bible says that whatever I ask for, believing that I have received it, it shall be mine (Mark 11:24). That is essentially the foundational scripture for the “prosperity gospel.” It tends to view God as a vending machine or a doting, wealthy grandparent who will give us whatever we want as long as we can imagine him giving to us. That is the “name it and claim it” approach to prayer. But we need to understand prayer in the context of God as a wise and loving Father, because that is the Biblical description of our relationship with him.

The truth is that we sometimes earnestly desire something that would not be in our best interest in the long-run. Because we tend to live life with a short-term perspective, we don’t understand why the Father did not respond to our fervent prayer. On more than one occasion, I have known seventeen-year-old boys who earnestly desired the newest, hottest car on the road to impress their friends and, especially, their girl friends. In my day, those were 400 h.p. Firebirds or Dodge Road Runners with a 440 engine, or a Corvette with a 427 stuffed under the hood. In the majority of cases, when the father gave into the request, the car ended up being totaled within 90 days. The seventeen-year-old did not have the experience or judgment to drive a car with that much speed.

Inevitably, even after the wreck, these guys wanted their dads to buy them a new care just like the one they barely walked away from. Sometimes we desire a relationship, money, the bright new house, the bright new car etc. and believe that those would open a door for years of happiness. But God knows our hearts and our future and our assigned destiny. He may not say “yes” to a prayer for a desire that in the long-run would not be in our best interest. We cannot see down the road far enough to know whether or not that road is leading us to a washed out bridge or a sunny drive in the country.

When our desire is not met, we may tend to think God doesn’t love us. But the love the Father has for us is “agape” love which, by definition, means to “always act in the best interest of the other person.” Some things we believe will be the key to our happiness might actually spell devastating pain down the road. If we believe that the Father loves us and knows what is best for our eternal destiny, even when he says “no” to something we deeply desire, we may not understand, but we will be able trust. The idea that if someone loves me, he or she will always give me what I want, is a very immature and childish way to understand love. God always has a greater blessing waiting for us, customized to meet our deepest needs in the best way. If we take offense at God, we may miss that blessing because we turn our back on the one who holds that blessing in his hand.

Ultimately, we need to come to grips with the reality that the Father is committed to our eternal destiny in heaven and not so much to our comfort and worldly desires while we are on this planet. Sometimes the greatest gift is a season of hardship as he tools our character. Some “good things” could move us away from the destiny he has planned for us. Some relationships or other desires become idols in our lives so that God cannot give place to those idols. There are many things we simply don’t have the ability to understand because we are confined to the moment we live in, rather than being able to see the road all the way to the end. From his view, God sees every washed-out bridge, every flooded low place, every ambush by the enemy, and every fallen tree blocking the road. Faith trusts God to guide us safely to the end. Saying “no” to some of our deepest desires, may be part of that guidance.

The apostle Paul makes the point in Romans 8:32, that if God loved us enough to give us life through the death of his Son, will he not also give us all things that will truly bless us? If we trust God to always be guided by love in his response to our prayers, we will have no need to be mad at him. If we believe he is committed to our welfare, we will judge him by all the things he has done for us, rather than the one thing he has not done. Too many of us have not decided who God is on the basis pf revelation, but on our short-term view of whether he has given us what we want. There will be things that make no sense to us and that definitely remain a mystery, but deciding who God is before we experience disappointment is the key to drawing close to him and accepting his “no’s” when they come.

Many believers and “former believers” have taken offense at God because they believed he allowed bad things to happen to them when he should have prevented them. Their view was that if God loved them, he would not have allowed a child to be molested, a divorce to happen, a woman to be raped, or a war to take lives.

I worked with man years ago, when I was young believer, who seemed to have no regard for God and a bit of disdain for the church. I tried to share my faith with him on numerous occasion, but he always changed the subject. One day he told me that he did not want to hear about Jesus anymore, but out of respect for our relationship, he decided to tell me why. He confided that he once had been married and very involved in church. He said he was a group leader, a deacon, and coached the kids softball team. One day, he came home from work early and found his wife in bed with his best friend. He said that if God would allow that to happen to him after he was faithfully serving him, then he didn’t want anything more to do with God. So he left the church, discarded his faith, and wanted no more conversations about it in the future. He felt that God had betrayed him by letting his wife and best friend make a bad decision. I think many others are mad a God for essentially the same reason.

The issue here is a misunderstanding of free will. Most of us would acknowledge that at some level we don’t want people telling us what to do or what to think and certainly don’t want to be controlled. That impulse is the desire to exercise free will. Theologically, free will means that I am able to make decisions without being controlled by God. God can influence me but cannot control me without violating my free will. The problem with free will is that I can make bad decisions and those decisions can hurt other people.

Billions of men and women wandering the planet with the capacity to make their own decisions is very risky business. Free will got Jesus crucified. It has begin countless wars. It has seen millions of babies aborted. We could go on. So why did God create man and give him free will? I can think of a couple of possibilities.

First of all, God made a free will choice to make us in his image. One of the primary qualities of being like God is the quality of free will. Without free will, we would be no more like God than a programmed robot would be like the engineer who made it. Of course, God’s original intent was for man to live on the earth and choose to love God as we want children to love parents.

In addition, the apostle John tells us that God is love. Love can certainly be given unconditionally, but eventually is not fully satisfied unless love is returned. It seems to me that love cannot be satisfying or fulfilling unless given freely. I am fulfilled by my wife’s love because she chooses to love me rather than being “forced” to love me. When someone loves another, that love assigns value to the one being loved. Ultimately, love that is programmed or given without choice is not truly love and assigns no value to the recipient. Women caught in highly controlled or highly abusive relationships may say the right things or do the right things that might be mistaken for love, but we would not define those emotional responses as love as much as we would define them as survival techniques.

What we must recognize is that God has given us all free will, whether we approve of that or not. That free will allows us to love, but also to injure. It allows ups to sacrifice but also be selfish. It allows us build up, but also to destroy. It allows us to choose faithfulness, but also unfaithfulness. God tries to persuade us to love, to do good, to give life, and to make positive choices, but he does not force our choice. He reinforces godly choices with blessings and discourages hurtful choices with discipline, but he allows us to choose.

My friend who found his wife in bed with his best friend, blamed God rather than his wife and friend. It never occurred to him that God may have put a number of road blocks and detours in the developing relationship between his wife and friend or that the Holy Spirit may have tried to bring conviction and warning to them as they moved toward adultery. But ultimately, God will allow us to exercise our free will. When we are hurt, either by our own decisions or the decisions of others, God will be there to help us pick up the pieces, heal, and move on. I must also point out that because God allows something, it doesn’t mean he approves of it or won’t deal with the perpetrator in his timing. Scripture declares that all those who choose to hurt others without repentance will stand before God and answer for that in the end. In the end, through our free will, each of us will choose life or death, eternity in heaven or in hell.

I must admit that this world is a dangerous place because of free will. Sometimes I wonder if we have too much freedom to choose, but without it, what kind of world would it be? Free will is a privilege bestowed by God that can bring glory to man made in God’s image or shame to man when he rejects the God who made him. But, let’s stop blaming God for what he has not done and hold man responsible for his decisions…knowing that the grace of God can put it all back together when e hold on to him inspite of the pain we might be experiencing.

As a pastor for over 40 years, I have heard many, many believers express their anger toward God. Typically, it was because they expected something from God that he has not promised. Often it was because he or she had experienced some traumatic event that they believed God should have prevented. At other times, it was because a fervent prayer had gone unanswered. In this blog, I want to talk about one more reason that a prayer may go unanswered or that hurtful things may happen that few believers are aware of.

This may be an unfamiliar concept to many, but I believe it is a valid, biblical concept. Your prayer may have gone unanswered or is yet to be answered simply because of the devil’s resistance. I think most believers assume that when a prayer goes up to God, he simply gives it a “yes” or “no” or , perhaps, a “not now.” If he approves, then it is a done deal. However, even when the answer is yes, there can be significant demonic resistance to the answer.

The classic example of this reality is found in Daniel 10. In that chapter, Daniel had a disturbing vision about a great war. Daniel was troubled by the vision and so began to fast and pray for an interpretation of the dream. After twenty one days, a powerful angel appeared to Daniel. The angel told the prophet that on the first day Daniel had begun two fast and pray, he had been dispatched with the answer to Daniel’s prayer. However, a powerful demonic prince, the prince of the Persian Kingdom, withstood the angel for twenty one days and would not let him pass to bring the answer to Daniel. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, came to take up the battle with the demonic prince so that the other angel could continue on his assignment.

If you are not familiar with the passage, this may surprise you. First of all, many believers give little or no thought to the demonic realm and many of us simply assume that if God approves our prayer then everything automatically lines up for our answer. The truth is that Satan may and does oppose what God has said “yes” to. In this case, the answer was delayed for three weeks and, if Daniel had not continued to pray, it is possible that Michael would not have been dispatched to join the the battle and Daniel would not have received his answer.

This opposition is a reality in spiritual warfare. We have a part to play in the battle and that part is sometimes persisting in prayer until we see the answer or some breakthrough. That prayer may take longer than three weeks, three months, or three years. Some might argue that since Christ defeated Satan through the resurrection, demons can no longer oppose God’s will. However, the apostle Paul himself wrote to the church at Thessalonica, “For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us” (1 These. 2:18). In the New Testament, post resurrection, we are warned that we must be aware of Satan’s schemes against us. We are told that we must struggle against him. We are told that he still seeks to devour us like a roaring lion. If we allow ourselves to fall prey to one of his scenes against us, hardship may come our way even though it is not God’s heart for us. If we give up praying too soon, an answer may not come because we became weary and gave in to the devil’s resistance.

A second reality, attached to spiritual warfare, is that something in our lives may be giving the devil a legal right to oppose God’s blessings and maintain a curse that has been established over our lives. Curses may be established because of unrepented sin in our own lives or as a result of sin in our bloodline. We are told several times in scripture that the consequences or punishment for the sins of our fathers, may be passed down for three or four generations. The consequences of these sins may be a curse that us operating on an entire family line (see Exodus 20:5).

Curses give Satan a right to oppress or afflict even believers. These curses may manifest as repeated business failures, conflict in families, mental illness, miscarriages, physical illness, a history of divorce, rebellion in children, bondage (additions), etc. The spiritual realm is a realm operated under law. There are many courtroom scenes is scripture in which the enemy brings a charge against of of God’s people in an effort to obtain a legal right to afflict even God’s children. Because God is a God of justice as well as grace, if the devil brings a charge against us in the courts of heaven that gives him a legal right to afflict us or oppose an answer to prayer, then God must allow him to do so because God, as a judge, cannot show partiality even to his own children. Many times, bad things happen to us or blessings fail to manifest because Satan has obtained a ruling against us in a court of heavenly law.

Our part, then, is to not only continue to pray for good things but also to confess, repent of, and renounce any sins that we are aware of on behalf of ourselves or our bloodline. Contrary to popular religious thought, these things are not always taken care of automatically by the blood of Jesus. In the first few chapters of Revelation, Jesus gave warnings to several churches and called them to repent and change their ways or bad things would occur. This is not a threat by an angry Jesus, but an indictor that their unrepented sin would open the door to demonic attacks, through which bad things would come their way.

We may need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any thing that is giving Satan legal access to us or our children, our sins or the sins of our fathers, so that we can remove that legal access through the blood of Christ. Satan is described in Revelation as “the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night” (Rev. 12:10). That is his tactic so we must be diligent to eat with those issues in our lives or bloodlines so that he has nothing to use against us in court.

Some prayers may have gone unanswered because we did not persist. Other prayers may have gone unanswered or hurtful things may have occurred because something was giving the devil a legal right to harass, oppress, or afflict us or our families. Sometimes we are mad at God because of unanswered prayers or hurtful events in our lives or family lines. For the most part, the church has not taught us about the arena of spiritual warfare. Just as Israel had to engage in battle to posses the promised land, we too must often engage in battle to possess the blessings we are praying for. This is not God’s fault but our own or church leaders for not teaching us these realities.

Perhaps, God has given us more responsibility in obtaining our answers to prayers and his blessings than we may be comfortable with. And yet, scripture reveals these responsibilities and the power of the blood of Jesus to overcome the enemy. If you have not been schooled in spiritual warfare, I might suggest my book, Born to Be Free (published by Morgan James and available on Amazon), and begin to grow in your understanding and the strategies needed to overcome the resistance of the devil. There are other excellent books as well that address these issues. I encourage you to read one.

God is for us. He wants to bless us. He wants to answer our prayers. But there are things that can get in the way of blessings and answered prayer that he has revealed to us and for which he has provided solutions. It is true that God could sweep away the devil with one word, and keep us from all hurt and harm on this planet. And he will do so in time. But for now there is still a real enemy and real battle to be fought. Paul reminds us, “That our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God…” (Eph. 6:12-13). Our lack of knowledge about these matters does not exempt us from their reality, it simply leaves us at the mercy of an invisible enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy and then blame God. Blessings in Him.

As we continue in this series, I want to cover another possible scenario in which we may feel that God has not answered our prayers, when we feel that he should have done so. Again, I need to say that being angry with God is evidence that we have judged God to be unfair, uncaring, or unfaithful. That judgment will eventually distance us from God and his people and often takes those who are close to us with us. If we are angry, it is important to examine the source and deal with it. So let’s look at another possible scenario that may have caused us to judge God and be angry.

A fairly common scenario is one in which we may have preconceptions about how God should answer our prayers and so miss out on the answer he does send. The answer may actually meet the need we have in a profound way, but because it doesn’t come wrapped in the paper or box we imagined, we turn it down. The classic example of this is the account of Naaman in 2 Kings 5. In this account, Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He is described as a great man but one who had contracted leprosy. He was informed that a prophet in Israel, Elisha, could heal his leprosy. So in an effort to impress the prophet, Naaman took an entourage of horses and chariots along with gold, silver and expensive clothes as gifts to the prophet. In expectation of a moment fitting his status, he proceeded to Elisha’s house.

When he arrived, he was extremely disappointed. Elisha did not meet him grandly and personally, but sent only a servant with the message to go dip in the Jordon River seven times and he would be healed. Naaman was infuriated. He declared, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the anime of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy…he turned and went off in a rage” (2 kings 5:11-12)!

In essence, he had imagined that God would answer his prayer in a certain way – one that honored Naaman and recognized his great value. He had imagined a very splendid, impressive moment when the prophet would heal him, but instead got instructions from a servant to go dip in a muddy river he disdained. Because God sent his answer in a different package than he expected , he left angry and unhealed. Fortunately, his servant convinced him to do what the prophet had instructed and he was eventually healed. He nearly lost out on his amazing blessing, however, because he wanted the prayer answered on his terms, rather than God’s.

God is always multitasking , however, and often wants to answer the heart of our prayer in ways that also accomplish other things. In Naaman’s case, he needed to humble himself before God could answer his prayer. Otherwise, Naaman would have left more prideful and arrogant than when he arrived. Instead, he left healed, humble, and grateful and was a better man and leader for the experience.

God has promised to meet our essential needs – ” our daily bread.” We may turn that promise into an expectation of making us wealthy, powerful ,and influential…which would probably distance us from God because the wealth and success would make us feel self-sufficient, connecting us socially with people who value power and recognition much more than a relationship with Jesus.

Not being wealthy or famous may be in our best interest but we may still become angry when we can’t keep up with the high rollers at the office, when “the deal of a lifetime” did not manifest, or when the lottery number “we heard from the Lord” did not pay off. When God determines to meet our financial needs in a way we did not imagine, we may feel as if he has let us down or doesn’t care about the thing we know would make us happy. Of course, our expectation is not always about money.

When he points us to the muddy waters of the Jordan rather than the mountain streams of Damascus, we may feel slighted and disappointed in many areas. This preconception of answered prayers “on our terms” may be about the perfect relationship, career, house, car, or some sort of fame or significance. I have known people that turned down jobs, relationships, and opportunities because what God may have sent them didn’t meet their expectation or “make their cut.” The less than perfect job or spouse may have grown into the blessing they had always wanted, but they were unwilling to consider that something a little less than they had imagined or felt worthy of might actually be the better answer to their prayers and real needs. In other words, when I pray for a car and imagine a BMW, perhaps, I should also be open to the dependable Ford me makes available, because when the warranty expires on the BMW, you may wish you had a Ford.

I’m not saying we should always settle or take the first thing to come along. We should, however, examine our preconceptions and “our terms” when the answer to our prayers and desires go unanswered over time. Has God actually answered our prayer in a way we had not imagined? Would our imagined answer to prayer actually be in our best eternal interest? Have we asked God how we should pray in response to a need or desire we are feeling? It is often wise to pray for the “what,” but let God deal with the “how.”

Again, if we are angry with God, is it because we believe he owes us something he hasn’t actually promised? Is it because we haven’t detected the “spiritual trap” woven into the thing we are asking for? Is it because the things we have imagined for ourselves flow out of the flesh and not the spirit? When we do pray with expectation, let’s do so with an open heart that allows God to answer the need that is reflected in our request, in a way that is unexpected but has our best interest in mind. God is a good father. Hw will way every request and answer in a way that meets our true need more profoundly than we can often see or understand. That is when we simply trust that God loves us enough, to not give us every desire of our heart.


Next Week: We may be unaware that Satan has obtained some legal right to oppose God’s answer to our prayers and will continue to oppose the answer until the legal right has been removed.

As we continue this series on why people find themselves angry at God, I want to mention that disappointment may not be the same as anger. There are times when I have prayed for something and was disappointed that God did not answer that prayer as I had desired or imagined it. However, I continued in my belief that that God is good and faithful and that his decision not to answer my prayer at that time was still in my best interest or in someone else’s best interest. We only become angry when we feel that God has wronged us or betrayed us. It is in that moment, that we judge God as being untrustworthy, unfair, or uncaring. That is the position that puts us in spiritual danger because the moment we decide that God cannot be trusted, we cannot have faith in him and we are saved by grace through faith. In fact, in several places in the book of Numbers, God declared that Israel treated him with contempt because they had not believed him when he said he would give them victory over the tribes and even the “giants” in Canaan as he had promised. Distrust is unbelief and unbelief is an attitude that will distance us from God and his blessings if not dealt with.

The second reason I listed that may cause us to we be angry with God is that we may fail to recognize that many of God’s promises are conditional and, perhaps, we have not yet met those conditions. A quick look at Deuteronomy 28 will reveal that it is always God’s desire to bless his people. He lists a bevy of blessings that he wants to bestow on Israel, but the promise begins with the condition that Israel continue to be faithful to him and that they would be careful to keep his commandments. The conditional statement takes the form of, “If you are careful to… then I will.”

As I mentioned in my last blog, God is a good parent and will not reinforce sinful behaviors with quickly answered prayers and showers of blessings, because to do so would convince us that sin is not an issue and, therefore, would place us in danger. I have seen far too many believers live as if God’s commands didn’t matter. Whether it was in shady business dealings, a sinful relationship, continuing substance abuse, a “little pornography,” or years of anger and verbal abuse heaped on a spouse or a child, many believers justify themselves in those actions or believe that God’s grace will cover those behaviors even without confession and repentance.

John instructs us when he says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). God does not require us to be perfect before he blesses us, but he does expect to be sensitive to sin, confess it as such, and repent so that the sin does not begin to affect our relationship with him or give Satan a legal right to afflict us. Dealing with sin as a believer is not automatic, God tells us to confess our shortcomings on a regular basis or our prayers may be hindered. Typically, when we fail to confess sins, it is because we don’t really want to give up the sin. That is nthje attitude that damages our relationship with the Father.

Another condition for answered prayers is found in James. “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (Ja. 4:2-3). Sometimes, we don’t receive what we want because we simply do not ask. It is possible to hold an entitlement attitude toward God. In a culture that tries to convince us that we are entitled to every good thing, we may simply believe that God should meet our every desire whether we ask or not. I do believe that God, as any good father would do, will bless us without asking for every little thing, but God also wants us to ask so that we do not forget the sources of our blessings.

An additional condition is also found in that passage. James tells us that if we only pray selfishly for ourselves, God may not want to reinforce that attitude either. We can certainly ask things for ourselves, but God wants us to keep the needs of others in mind as well as concerns for the kingdom of God on earth.

There are additional conditions throughout scripture. If you want to be promoted, you must humble yourself. If you want mercy, you must extend mercy. If you want to avoid judgment, you must not judge others. If you want to be trusted with God’s blessings, you must be a good steward of those blessings. I’m convinced that we often ask for things that we are not prepared to steward well…a promotion at work, a ministry role at church, a marriage that we desire, some significant financial blessing that we are seeking. God may not give us what we are not prepared to manage well because we would damage what he has given us or it would damage us until we have matured more in that area of our life.

So, when God has not answered certain prayers, before being angry with him, we may want to ask ourselves if there is a condition for the answer to our prayer that we have not yet met. Not every prayer falls under this category, but many do.

My wife Susan was telling me this week that she had recently encountered a number of people who had distanced themselves from the church and from God because they were angry with Him. Each of these were angry because something didn’t happen that they thought God should make happen or because something did happen that they believed a loving God should have prevented. Either way, they were angry because their expectations about God had not been met.

I think many of us, as believers, have been in that place at one time or another. Perhaps, we weren’t angry but we were certainly disappointed with God and left wondering if God even hears our prayers or doesn’t always keep his promises. I think enough people struggle with this human experience that I want to speak to it in more detail than I have previously.

Taking offense at God puts us in a very spiritually vulnerable situation. When we are offended with God we may fall into distrust and unbelief and stop praying, serving, fellowshipping with other believers and, ultimately, come into agreement with Satan about the character of God. That scenario is what caused Adam and Eve to be removed from the Garden of Eden and what caused an entire generation of Hebrews to wander in the wilderness for forty years, never to enter the promised land. Because of that, I will do this in a series of several blogs rather than just trying to speak to it briefly in only one.

In general, there are several things that may cause us to be mad at God or take up an offense against him when God has not fulfilled our desires or met our expectations. I will list eight of those here.
1. We may fail to recognize that God will not respond to a prayer that is asking Him to violate his righteousness or that would be a violation of his commands

2. We may fail to recognize that many of God’s promises are conditional and, perhaps, we have not yet met those conditions.

3. We may have preconceptions about how God should answer our prayers and so miss out on the answer he does send.

4. We may be unaware that Satan has obtained some legal right to oppose God’s answer to our prayers and will continue to oppose the answer until the legal right has been removed.

5. We may fail to understand the nature of free will in this world, and so are angry at God when someone has exercised their free will and hurt us.

6. We may fail to recognize that our own bad decisions are are keeping us from receiving what we are asking for.

7. We may not understand, that faith must still hold that God is good and righteous in all he does, even though we don’t understand why something happened or did not happen as we desired.

8. We may fail to recognize, that as a good father, God may say “No” to things that would eventually hurt us, even though we think it is the very thing that would make our life worth living.

Let me begin with reason Number One.

I have been in full-time ministry for a number of years and very little surprises me. However, on occasion, I have been surprised by the prayers that some believers have offered up and then been upset with God that he did not answer. I remember a very mature, talented Christian woman who was angry with God because he would not answer the prayer she was offering up night after night. This single woman came to me to confess her anger at God.

She told me that, in the past, God had answered her prayers quickly and clearly, but now he seemed to be ignoring her. She felt betrayed by his “indifference to her pleas.” I asked her what she was asking God to do. She explained that she had been having an affair with a married man who had a wife and three young children. She had been asking God to prompt this man to divorce his wife, leave his children, and marry her. She had been praying that for months but had seen no change in her “lover’s” hesitancy to leave his family for her and so was angry that God had not come through for her.

This was a woman who had grown up in the church and even taught Bible classes for her congregation. I asked her why she thought God should answer that prayer. Who answer was simple. “God wants me to be happy and that’s what would make me happy!” It never occurred to her that she was asking God to participate in her sin and compound the sin by prompting him to abandon his wife and children and violate the covenant oaths he had made when he married the woman. I was amazed that she had ever thought God would aide her in a clear violation of his will and his values…but she was angry that he had not come through for her. Another time, I had a single Christian man tell me that he was praying for God to help him “score” with the woman he was taking out that night. When I asked why he thought God might answer that prayer, he simply answered that he loved sex and he thought God would want to satisfy his “God-given” desires.

These are extreme examples but it is possible for believers to assume that God simply exists to make sure we receive what we believe will make us happy or satisfy some desire. There are, of course, scriptures that tell us whatever we ask for with faith, will be given. Mark tells us. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mk.11:24). Jesus declared, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (Jn. 14:13-14).These promises may seem like blank checks but they are not.

The problem is that we must take all scriptures about answered prayer together without isolating one fromm the others. A key scripture for understanding prayer is, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (I Jn. 5:14). The psalmist also declared, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Ps. 66:18).

One essential condition for answered prayer is that we ask things that are according to or consistent with God’s will. If we are asking God to enable us in a sin we cherish in our heart, he will not respond. He will not respond because, as a responsible parent, he will not reinforce behavior that puts our soul in jeopardy. Paul tells is in his letter to the Corinthians that “love always protects” (1 For. 13:7). Therefore, God will not participate in sin…not just because he is holy, but also because he loves us. When we pray, we need to be sure that what we are asking for is not contrary to the will and ways of God. Some are mad at God, because he didn’t give them what they wanted, even thought it was a prayer birthed out of sinful desires. Sometimes we need to repent rather than being mad at God. God wants to bless us, but sin robs us of blessings. We should pray for things that God desires for us, rather than what our flesh desires.

More on this next week.

If you are interested in approaches to natural health and healing, you will frequently come across articles on the need to detox the body. The idea is to use certain foods or formulas to remove toxins, heavy metals, etc. from the body. As we log significant years or miles on our bodies, we pick up toxins from the foods we eat, the air we breathe, and from the liquids we drink. Those toxins keep our bodies and our immune systems from working according to design and can eventually lead to serious health issues.

It is possible that mental toxins we pick up from our environment can have even more serious effects. A number of medical research findings suggest that seventy to eighty percent of all physical illnesses are related to stress, worry, and negative thinking. On tip of that, depression, anxiety, and suicidal risks are at all time highs in our culture. These issues are also related to our spiritual health.

The apostle Paul had an antidote for these mental. emotional and spiritual toxins that existed even in his lifetime. He wrote, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Phil.4:8)

In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul encourages us to evaluate and choose what we think about, what we ponder, and what we entertain on the big screen of our imagination.  In other words, be intentional about everything…especially your thought life. Everything we think about, focus on, or entertain in our minds leaves an impression on our neural pathways and on our soul. The theological term for intentional or prolonged thinking about an issue, a principle, or an experience is meditation or contemplation. Scripture mentions that mental/spiritual process frequently. That is a rarely used term in American culture. Maybe we relate it to eastern religions and yoga exercises, which are definitely not what I am talking about. It is, however, a very biblical concept. When Christians mediate, they are focused on the word of God and are not just emptying their minds so that any spirit in the neighborhood can enter. Christians invite only the Holy Spirit. 

Speaking of Isaac, the son of Abraham, we are told, “He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching” (Gen.24:63). Isaac had intentionally set time aside in the evening to meditate, to think about things, to mentally process his day and his relationships. After the death of Moses, the Lord spoke to Joshua and commanded him, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Jos.1:8). David prayed, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Ps.19:44; See also Ps.1:2, 48:9, 63:6, 77:12, 119:5, 143:5)

Meditation is a way to intentionally process experiences, expand our understanding of people and events, reinforce positive thoughts, internalize biblical truths, establish God-directed goals, and deepen kingdom values in our heart and mind. For the believer, it is a time set aside to hear the Holy Spirit lead us into truth and shape our life and character. It is also a great way to detox mentally and spiritually, after you have encountered hurtful people and slogged through a sin-soaked culture all day. What you think about most often, what you reflect on frequently, what you consider and process in your mind will rule the day in your heart.

The psalmists mention several things about which they frequently meditated: God’s creation, God’s wonderful and miraculous acts, their personal history with God – his blessings and faithfulness, the Word of God, and God himself. The apostle Paul would add, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). The verb tense in that passage directs us to think about those things over and over rather than once in a while. Paul also insists that we “take every though captive” and make it obedient to Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).

He also tells us, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col.3:1-2). The writer of Hebrews layers on another dimension. “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess” (Heb.3:1). There may be more, but that is plenty to reflect on. Again, meditation is simply the act of intentionally thinking about, chewing on, reflecting, studying, talking about, praying about, etc. certain things you want to understand and deposit in your heart.

For us it is a dialogue with the Spirit, asking him to give us understanding, insight, revelation, and reinforcement of his truths and values in our life. In scripture, meditation seems to occur most often in the evening or during the “watches of the night.”   I tend to believe that the last things we focus on before falling asleep get the attention of our subconscious which continues to process those things during the night. If it is negative and disturbing news, we will process that. If it is pornography, that will roll around the subconscious in our sleep reinforcing its presence. If it is a scary movie, fear will exert itself in our minds.

However, when we invite the Holy Spirit to be involved in our sleep, we may receive truth and peace we have never recognized before. “For God does speak—now one way, now another— though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds” (Job. 33:14-15). Listening to your audio Bible while you sleep can keep the enemy at bay.

Spending time in the evening reflecting on God, his truth, the goodness of Christ, his Word, etc. is clearly a God-given way to detox spiritually from all the contaminates we have encountered during the day. Satan spends the day trying to pull us away from the truth of God, twisting it, and enticing us to agree with him rather than the Father. Meditation helps to realign our thoughts and feelings with the Lord and in doing so takes away places where the enemy is searching for a foothold. So much around us that we hear, see, and read – even unintentionally – defiles the temple of the Holy Spirit. An evening scrub with meditation will help to keep that temple a place where the Spirit can rest without offense. Let me also say, to meditate, we should take small chunks of scripture to reflect on rather than speed reading ten chapters. Even fifteen minutes with the Lord just before sleep can pay big dividends. 

As I examine the life of Jesus, everything seems so intentional. I suffer from being right-brained. Structure and concrete goals are not my style. Intentionality gives way to random responses to things I encounter during the day. I want to “get in the mood” before doing anything introspective and the mood is elusive. I’m working on consistent meditation. Writing this blog is a form of that, but I want to lay in a godly habit of detoxing at the end of the day and inviting the Spirit to rule over my dreams and even the thoughts churned up by my subconscious. Meditation is one of God’s most powerful divine weapons (2 Cor.10:4) and can make a huge difference as we follow Him. Perhaps, you’ll join me. 

If you grew up in church, you probably know the Old Testament story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These three young Hebrew men were deported from Judea to Babylon after an invasion by King Nebuchadnezzar, and pressed into his service. Part of the Babylonian strategy of conquest was to take the young nobles, the best and the brightest, from a nation that had just been conquered and simply absorb them into Babylonian culture through education and training. They were actually given positions of significance in Babylon in an attempt to make them willing “citizens” rather than insurgents.

In Daniel 3, we are told that Nebuchadnezzar made a huge image of gold and required every person in Babylon to worship the statue at certain times. Of course, Jews who believed in only one God could not do so with good conscience and so the three young men refused to worship. They were reported and brought before the king who threatened to burn them alive in a furnace if they would not worship. Their response was, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” 

You know the rest of the story. Nebuchadnezzar was infuriated that these young Jews would dare to defy him. In a rage, he had the furnace stroked seven times hotter than normal and they were, indeed, cast into the furnace. However, Nebuchadnezzar saw them strolling around in the fire, unconcerned and unharmed, with a fourth party that was described as looking like “a son of the gods.” The astonished king called them out of the furnace. They had not been touched by the fire and even the smell of burning wood was not on their clothing. The king recognized that an angel had protected them from him, and was so amazed that he gave each of them promotions in his government and prohibited anyone in his kingdom from saying anything against their God.

There are dramatic moments like this throughout scripture in which men and women stood in faith against overwhelming odds. The obvious lesson is that, in many cases, the expression of faith will put us in a position that, if God doesn’t show up, we are toast. Think about it. Most of us pray for lives that are so ordered that we are never at risk, but where there is no risk, there is little opportunity to grow in our faith. If we do walk in faith, we will have moments when we will have to choose to trust God for good outcomes.

There are amazing moments like the one above recorded throughout scripture where faith clearly placed men and women in life-threatening situations. If God didn’t come through, they would be lost, destroyed, or cast out. What if it hadn’t rained after Noah spent years building an ark? What if God didn’t show up for Moses after he returned to Egypt where he had been a wanted man for forty years? What if fire had not come down on Mt. Carmel in response to Elijah’s prayer as he stated against the prophets of Baal?

Again, what we learn from a quick overview of scripture is that an act of faith nearly always makes us vulnerable to harm or loss. We also need to recognize that It’s not always in big dramatic moments like the ones just listed. The “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7 is full of directives that have the potential to place us in harm’s way on a daily basis. If we love our enemy and turn the other cheek, will our enemy not see that as weakness and take advantage of us or bully us all the more? If we forgive those who have betrayed us, won’t we simply be reinforcing their bad behavior because they experience no real consequence from us? If we lend to others without demanding that they return what they borrowed, won’t we end up with an empty bank account or a vacant garage? If we speak well of others while they are speaking evil of us at the office, will we not be damaged? Won’t they ruin our reputation and undermine our position, even though we are innocent? What if we step out of a love relationship that is causing us to compromise our faith? Will there be another one who loves us or will we inevitably face a life alone?

Even the basic teachings of Jesus, put us at risk if we truly follow what he says. The only way to follow these commands is to believe that God will bless us, uphold us, and provide for us when we are attacked or taken advantage of because of our obedience. That simple expectation takes faith. Maybe we are not facing a fiery furnace, but we can face hurt, humiliation, and loss on many levels. To follow Jesus, often means that we can’t act in ways to protect ourselves but will have to make ourselves vulnerable while trusting God to protect us, reimburse us, vindicate us, and so forth…and on his timeline. Even tithing when inflation is rampant and we worry about our budgets takes faith. To give to the Lord can make us feel financially at risk. What will we choose?

Sometimes we are disobedient out of our flesh’s propensity for rebellion and stubbornness. But more often, I think we are disobedient out of fear that God will not be there for us if we put ourselves in a risky position through our obedience. Sure, we would like to think we would have the courage and faith of Elijah or Moses or David running toward Goliath, if the moment arose. But it is in the smaller moments of loving an enemy or forgiving your betrayer or refusing to speak badly of the one who is slandering you at work, that we develop the faith to tackle our giants.

The lesson is that every time we feel afraid, vulnerable, or exposed, we probably have a chance to step out in faith to see what God will do in response to our submission. It is in those moments that we learn that God is our rock, our deliverer, our provision, and our vindication. I believe the time may be coming soon when we will need more faith than we ever imagined, as the world becomes more and more hostile toward followers of Jesus. We will feel more and more pressure to compromise or to deny the truth of scripture in order to maintain our friendships, jobs, or even family connections. Perhaps, I need to begin to choose vulnerability over self-protection now, in order to prepare for a moment when I cannot protect myself by any means, but will totally have to trust the Lord if I am not going to deny the faith.

The good news is that the same God who parted the Red Sea for Moses, who gave Elijah victory over 800 prophets of Baal, who guided the stone from David’s sling, and who delivered Daniel from the lion’s den is the same God who watches over you. Let’s begin to choose vulnerability and risk in expressing our faith in the little things now, so that when we face our giants in the days ahead, we can remember, like David, all the times that God delivered us from lesser risks and believe that he will be is there for us, when much more is on the line.