God gets a bad rap

I want to talk more about being disappointed/let down/angry at God.  I think this is the kind of stuff that brings us to the crossroad of confusion and indecision.  The first step is recognizing that what's going on in our hearts is actually anger/disappointment/unforgiveness toward God.  We often put our anger on people, but it can go way deeper than that. Once we identify what's going on spiritually, we can start dealing with it, dislodging us from being stuck in one place and begin the process of moving on into victory and freedom. 

Okay, next step.  Last week I was praying about this and asking God to reveal truth.  To confirm what I felt like I was hearing from Him, I consulted another prophet and asked for his thoughts.  The first thing he said was what I had been thinking too.....

It's not God's fault.

God gets blamed for so much stuff that He didn't do. God is not the problem, but we have a sneaky adversary who whispers in our ear and tries to convince us that God is hurting us, punishing us, ignoring us, neglecting us, making us sick, taking away people we love, having a party in heaven while we bleed to death on earth. Some pain we can figure out; we sin and there are consequences. Or we love God and desire to obey Him, but sometimes make poor choices out of ignorance or immaturity (think about it....are the choices you make now a lot wiser than the choices you made five, ten, twenty years ago?). Abraham was a mighty man of God, and even having a promise from Him (Genesis 15), still produced an Ishmael that he then had to feed. Other times it's not so obvious. We think we are doing everything right, so when things go wrong, it must be God's doing, right? We assume way too much.  We can't figure out who to blame (that's such an American thing, isn't it?), so we just dump it all on God and then harbor resentment toward the very One that we need to be close to.  We erect walls around our hearts, a monument to our pain, thinking we are protecting ourselves from further pain and heartbreak.  Do we not realize that this wall keeps the pain in, and keeps God's love and healing out?  It becomes a vicious cycle.  We get pissed off at God and avoid Him. We then become more and more miserable because we have cut ourselves off from our Source ....

"A branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine...

apart from Me, you can do nothing. "  John 15

The longer we stay in this place, the worse it gets. Anger leads to resentment and bitterness. We stop trusting God and think we can get on better on our own. Those walls of self-protection remain impenetrable as our heart hardens. Doubt sets in.  The original sin in the Garden of Eden continues. The serpent tempted Eve to doubt God (Genesis 3), and she fell for it.  That deception is still happening. If satan can get us to doubt God, he's got us right where he wants us. The longer we stay in the sin of unbelief, the more time he has to pump our hearts and minds full of negativity.  The 33,000 promises of God mean nothing to us, we're mad at Him. We put ourselves in the position to not receive from Him, and then get more upset that He won't deliver us from the torment that we ourselves are creating and feeding. 

Is this you?  Are these words making you think?  Evaluate?  Are you feeling a little conviction?  You are not alone, that was me too.  Let me help you.  Read the book of James (five chapters) every day until my next post.  Victory is near baby.  We are going to get un-stuck.