Last Sunday we continued our series looking at how we bring our whole lives before God by looking at how we deal with sorrow and anger. You can hear the whole talk at http://dynamic.church123.com/podcast/1ee777fd-3d61-4723-afe9-a020cb1827a7.
When I put the series together I was very tempted to ignore the Psalms that make me feel uncomfortable in talking about revenge, anger with God, the times that heaven seems silent, the times we battle with the healings that don't take place. However, I knew that if I was to be faithful to the series then we had to address the issue and not just put on our evangelical smiles and pretend that we are living totally fulfilled victorious lives in Christ when we continue to suffer hurt, pain, disappointment and anger. In fact Jesus Christ felt all those things too and was able to express that in prayer to his father, most notably in his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before his arrest, trial, beating and death and in his cry on the cross of "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
On arrival at church, prepared to share this message, the first two people I spoke to shared about good news in their lives and answers to prayer and how good God is, which was wonderful, but made me wonder if this was the right message for church and yet God seemed to be saying to go ahead. Since then a number of people have told me that they needed to hear it. That is good but how much better if we can actually go beyond that and start living with total honesty before God.
A typical structure that that Psalmists use when they write Psalms of lament was:
- Call on God
- Tell Him what's wrong
- Ask Him to put it right
- Tell Him why He should care
- Express your pain over what's wrong
- Rejoice in Him as the God who can solve it
I heard of one church that looked at this and then many wrote their own 'laments'. If you want to do that and feel it is appropriate, why not post it on the Morden Park Baptist Church Facebook page. If you would rather do that anonymously then please email it, or send it as a Facebook message, to me, Dave Sunman, and I will post it there. If it is too personal to share with otherers then use it to share how you feel with God. He is big enough to take it.
There have been times where i've been guilty of being angry at God. When people I love are suffering and ill, you want to scream at God and ask him "Is this my punishment, are you punishing people I love because of my sin"
ReplyDeleteOf course he isn't and my rational calm self knows that. But when you see suffering and you are unable to help then you lash out out in the worst way. But when you look back at that whole situation you see God's role in it. Not in making the people you love suffer but in how he supports and nurtures those involved.
My prayer is that I gain the wisdom and maturity to bypass the anger and blaming God for the things that happen that hurt me, and the people I love.
And I thank God that he is a God of love and grace AMEN
Thank you Liz.
DeleteAs I read the Psalms they contain so much variety, but many of them express anger and disappointment in God over the times when he doesn't seem to act. I believe that God doesn't mind that we have times where we rant and rave at him. He would much rather that we work it out with him than that we withdraw from him and try to work it out on our own.