QUESTION No. 27 SUNDAY October 18, 2026
Q. Am I mad at God?
When the question was first posed to me, I scoffed. Mad at God? Hell no. Why would I be mad at God? (I think I said it half under my breath as if someone might be listening.)
But as I walked on and thought about it more, I had to ask myself again: ARE you mad at God?
This time the answer was: I think I might be. But I don’t know why.
God did, though. He knew exactly why.
"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.'"
- Jonah 4:9
What kind of an idiot gets mad and stays mad at the most powerful, all-knowing divine being?
It came as quite a shock to me when I sat down to sort out the reason. Turns out, there were more than one. A lot more.
Being honest about the subject didn’t make it any easier.
Maybe I was goading Him into obliterating me from the face of the earth for committing what I thought must be a sin of extreme severity.
Then I thought…
God is in control of all things. Who else was to blame?
Why was I only mad at God? Why never Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
How much hostility directed at the world is actually anger with God?
…..
I was born with a short fuse. I used to blame it on my Irish heritage. But that didn’t really float once I was forced to deal with it before it consumed me. In retrospect, it made no sense. All things considered, I was pretty content and blessed in a thousand ways.
Turns out, I was mad with Him about much more than I thought. And more often.
I could list a few here: Unmet expectations. Wounded pride. Perceived injustice. Envy. All the usual suspects.
But the last person I was willing to blame was myself.
"Then I said, 'Alas, Sovereign Lord! How completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, “You will have peace,” when the sword is at our throats!'"
- Jeremiah 4:10
A WORD ON THE WORD: Before "Satan" became familiar to English readers as a personal name for the Devil, the Hebrew root satan described an adversary — someone who opposes, challenges, or accuses. Add the prefix Ha (“the”) and the action is transformed into a role. In a judicial setting, “the prosecutor”. But in the world at large, it becomes “the adversary” or “the accuser.”
When we pull off the lid and crawl in, we discover anger against God can have many sources.
• Blame God for making the universe and everything in it.
• Blame God for being too confusing or difficult to understand.
• Blame God for not carrying our cross.
• Blame God for knowing we will turn from Him and not stopping us.
In each case, we point the finger at God. We accuse Him of somehow failing us.
“Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.”
- Psalm 73:13-14
One could argue God makes it rather easy to be angry with Him.
• Why is life filled with such suffering and sadness?
• Why doesn’t God just tell us what He wants or expects?
• Why all the mystery surrounding faith and salvation?
• Why do prayers go ignored?
Perhaps our disappointment is not with what God does or doesn’t do, but who God is. We know He has the power to fix it all yet refuses.
"Remember, anger is temporary insanity! Forgive as you hope to be forgiven.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon
Scripture is filled with those who express anger and disappointment directly to God. And He does not always silence them. He expects us to experience emotion, real human emotion, as was part of our original design.
God’s righteous anger is quite another thing. When we picture God’s wrath we see uncontrolled fury, nostrils flared thunderbolts raining hellfire on sin-filled cities.
"Who can stand before an angry God? His fury is like fire; the mountains tumble down before his anger."
-Nahum 1:6
But the biblical term “wrath” is misunderstood. When applied to God, the context is less about violence and more about opposition to wrongdoing, disappointment triggered by moral evil, and the suppression of His truth.
“But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
- Psalm 86:15
Anger toward God cannot be disguised. It does not go undetected wrapped in sadness or veiled in melancholy.
He doesn’t ask to see the clean you standing before Him. The one wearing false cheer staring at the floor.
He wants the whole you. The crushed you. The stumbling fallen you. The exasperated seething you. The “I can’t muster up the strength to say Thank you” you. The raging you.
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
- Ephesians 4:26
Trust and lament must somehow live together. That is the sad and chaotic reality of our fallen world.
But stay turned toward Him in every state. In anger. In joy. In confusion and frustration.
Stand before Him as you are. Raw, unfiltered, and humble always.
“Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.”
- Psalm 62:8
For how can a heart that hides from itself ever be healed?
BoBQ Vol. 5 pg. 97-98