Have you ever been frustrated with God? Annoyed with Him? I confess, I have often been in that position. While I am confessing, allow me go even further; my frustration with God has not always been a short term thing. There have been some long periods of time where I have carried an underlying frustration with God.
I’m not proud of this admission. In fact, it troubles me. Intellectually we know God is God, that His ways are always right, and we should just walk with Him by faith and be joyful in what He does or allows. I find that easier to say than to do. Each person has their own issues with God, but my frustrations mostly revolve around the following points.
1. God is unwilling to compromise. I live in a world where people have different ideas of how things should be done. In order to move toward a common goal, one has to make some compromises. I understand we can’t compromise on the big principles of truth and I don’t ask God to do that. But He is unwilling to compromise on anything. It’s His way or nothing. I get frustrated that He is so inflexible.
2. He doesn’t seem to care about my schedule or agenda. Even though I’ve committed my life to Him and seek to serve Him, He doesn’t seem to care if major interruptions come at the least convenient times. In fact, it’s often the times when I am the busiest that He sends trials that hinder my work. I don’t mind going through situations that help me grow, but He could be more considerate in the timing and duration of these trials. After all, He is God and can control everything if He wants to.
3. He consistently takes longer than necessary to deal with important issues in my life. He has the power to do anything, yet when it comes to resolving issues that cause me grief - important things that need to be taken care of - He seems to take His time as if there is nothing to be concerned about. I find that frustrating.
4. He won’t allow me to use Him once in a while. Things come up occasionally that I want Him to take care of for me. I’m even willing to do something extra to compensate Him – give an extra donation to the church, spend more time in prayer and Bible study, even fast for a while in exchange for Him taking care of those things for me. But He won’t let me use Him like that. He seems more than willing to use me, but He won’t let me use Him.
5. He doesn’t come through very well on all those “exceedingly great and precious promises” 2 Peter 1:4 talks about. You know the ones I’m talking about:
§ He “will not allow [us] to be tempted beyond what [we] are able [to bear]” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
§ He “shall supply all [our] need according to His riches” (Philippians 4:19).
§ He works all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).
§ He will “guard [us] from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3).
§ He will give us “the peace of God…to guard [our] hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6).
As I reflected on this list I was horrified at what it revealed concerning the condition of my heart. How self-centered and ungrateful I really am. Who do I think I am that I should even have the right to be frustrated with God – much less to be frustrated with Him over the foolish idea that He doesn’t operate in the way I think He should! Talk about arrogance!
Consider some implications this mind-set toward God has upon our relationship with Him.
§ It is hard to be in harmony with someone we’re frustrated with.
§ It is hard to trust someone we are frustrated with.
§ It is hard to yield to someone we are frustrated with.
Thus, we keep a little distance between us and God, and then wonder why Christianity doesn’t work for us. If we have an underlying resentment toward God, how much good will all our Bible study and prayer do? God can’t break into our heart when the door is shut because we’re frustrated with Him.
This attitude causes so much needless heartache and spiritual loss. It keeps us from experiencing the life of peace, joy, contentment, and victory God wants us to have – that we can have if we allow God to be God without reservations.
Some of you may be thinking, “How do we allow God to be God? He is already God – we can’t keep Him from being God.” That is true in a general sense. But friends, if we don’t joyfully embrace Him as God and trust that He is working all things together for our good, then He is not our God – self is. The question we have to settle is: “Will I allow God to be God, or will I argue with Him, complain about Him, and vote Him out of office when things don’t go the way I think they should?
The temptation to do this comes frequently because of what Isaiah 55:8-9 says: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” This verse tells us 2 things:
§ God doesn’t think or act like we do. He’s not just way out in left field compared to our way of thinking – He’s not even in our ballpark! We don’t understand why He allows certain things to happen, and that is often a major cause of frustration.
§ The implication of this verse is that His thoughts and ways are much better than ours. If we would accept that fact by faith and just settle it in our minds that whatever God does or allows is much better than anything we could come up with, then we wouldn’t be frustrated with God so often.
We’re not alone in this struggle of being frustrated with God. Most of the Bible heroes also had their times of frustration with God. Let’s start with the disciples who had the privilege of being with Jesus personally, yet were often frustrated with Him.
§ They were frustrated when He stopped the multitude from crowning Him king at the feeding of the 5,000. The people were ready to set Him on the throne, but He squashed it and sent them all away.
§ They were frustrated when He didn’t take advantage of the momentum gained that Sunday when He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem and the whole city came out to greet him with palm branches and hosannas.
§ They didn’t want to hear what He had to say about going to Jerusalem and suffering many things at the hands of the chief priests, how he must be killed, and on the 3rd day be raised to life again.
§ They were frustrated when he allowed himself to be captured in the Garden of Gethsemane, tried, condemned and hung on a cross to die.
What was the result of their frustration? Fear, hopelessness, and despair. Their refusal to let Him be God and work things out along His lines caused them to miss out on witnessing the greatest event in history – His coming forth from the tomb Sunday morning as the conqueror of death and Satan.
When they finally repented of their frustrations and allowed God to be God, they were filled with the joy and power of the Holy Spirit and carried the gospel to the world, fearing neither hardship, imprisonment nor death.
Abraham, the father of all who believe, was frustrated with God for taking so long to fulfill His promise of giving him and Sarah a child. God kept putting it off until after 10 years Abraham took matters in his own hands and produced a child with another woman. It caused all kinds of grief in his home and he eventually had to send the boy and his mother away.
God kept putting it off until it became biologically impossible for Abraham and Sarah to have a child. Yet when Abraham stopped focusing on what he could understand and allowed God to be God, his frustration turned to laughter at the humanly impossible birth of Isaac. Through his experience with Isaac, the child of promised, he gained a greater appreciation for the power of God and a deeper understanding into the plan of salvation, how God would sacrifice “His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Job, a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil, was frustrated with God – not when he lost his wealth and 10 children, that was a heavy blow to be sure – he tore his robe, shaved his head in sorrow, then fell to the ground in worship saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
The frustration set in when God just kept pounding him – the painful boils that covered his body from head to toe, his wife telling him to curse God and die, his 3 “friends” who came to condemn him. He couldn’t make sense of it all, and just wanted to die.
After many days God steps in and addresses Job’s whining. He asks a series of 71 questions (chapters 38-41) for which Job doesn’t have an answer. Notice the last question in chapter 41:11: “Who has a proceeded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.”
Job is humbled by the greatness of God and replies in chapter 42:5-6: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You, therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” When he repented of his frustration and allowed God to be God, then God blessed him again and gave him twice as much as he had before. His story has been an encouragement to hundreds of thousands of others who have also gone through difficult times.
Jeremiah was another who had complaints against God. He was known as the weeping prophet; his life and ministry were not easy. Most of us can identify with one of his complaints found in Jeremiah 12:1: “Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead with You; yet let me talk with You about your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?”
God responds in verse 5: “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with the horses?” In other words, if you can’t handle the little stuff how will you be able to handle the big stuff?
Jeremiah has a few more times of tears and frustration: “Woe is me, my mother, that you have born me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth” (15:10). In verse 18 he adds: “Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?” Again, God tells him to buck up and repent for his lousy attitude in verses 19-21.
Jeremiah finally “gets it” and finds peace. He pens those words that have brought such comfort to so many through the ages: “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness…the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:21-26).
Habakkuk is another who got frustrated with God because He was going to use the Babylonians to punish Israel. It didn’t seem right because the Babylonians were more wicked than Israel! When Habakkuk allows God to be God he finds peace and writes these encouraging words: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls – yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like a deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills” (Habakkuk 3:17-19).
Let’s close with one more example – Asaph, who penned his frustration and resolution in Psalm 73: “Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked…They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth…And they say: ‘How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches. Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning…When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me – until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Surely you set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors…(verses1-19).
When he sees the big picture from God’s perspective the frustration is gone. Peace once again floods his soul; hope is restored. What he sees concerning the wicked is only temporary. It is not for him to question why, he just needs to trust God and not let go of His hand. He concludes with this: “You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works” (verses 23-28).
Friends, may we let go of our frustrations with God and “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
Friends, we do not need to understand why; we just need to understand that God is God, and His ways are higher and better than ours. Our focus should not be on trying to understand everything God is doing, but rather on staying close to Jesus, keeping our hand clasped in His so He can lead us into glory.
I close with this precious thought which I carry with me. It is taken from the book, Ministry of Healing, p. 488: The Father's presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. Whatever comes to him comes from the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Nothing can touch him except by the Lord's permission. All our sufferings and sorrows, all our temptations and trials, all our sadness and griefs, all our persecutions and privations, in short, all things work together for our good. All experiences and circumstances are God's workmen whereby good is brought to us.”
Do you believe that? Will you build your life on it? If you do you will find your frustrations with God diminishing and your peace increasing.
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Dick Bullock is the pastor of 3 churches in “the Thumb” of Michigan.