God Doesn't Leave Us When We Are Hurt or Angry

 

I will rail against this most perverse aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous until the cult is dismantled for good.

The wretched "Blue Book" (because in no way is is a BIG BOOK) tells us that if we get resentful, bitter, angry, that it shuts us off from "the sunlight of the Spirit."

That is a total lie.

God is not a fiction or a creation of our minds. He is not something that we conceive of, and then hope that He will be there for us when times are tough.

For the longest time, I felt that God was thousands of miles away when I felt bad. For years, I was convinced that I had to "feel love" or "feel warmth" in order to know that God was present.

If I felt bad, felt weird, or I was not focused on Him for whatever reason, I believed that God would go away and I would have to struggle to bring Him back.

That is a total lie.

In fact, when we are hurting, when we feel sad, we sense deep hurt or rejection, we can trust and know that He is near to us!

"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalm 34:18)

God does not disappear or go away when you feel bad, mad, or sad.

That is a total lie. In fact, you can know that He hears you and cares for you in your most dire straits, no matter what is happening around you.

I grappled with a very painful conflict a few days ago, and I had this sense that the pain was too great to bear, and that there was no way that I could resolve this problem. I grieved from a sense of betrayal which I had suffered, and I felt that I was all alone.

"I felt ..."

And that is the operative word, and the operative problem.

It's always that we feel abandoned, or that God is far away, but our feelings, our thoughts, our sentiments on the matter have nothing to do with God's nearness in our lives.

He is CLOSE to the brokenhearted. When you feel the most abandoned, that is the point when we must know and believe (not feel) in His love for us (1 John 4:16).

When Elijah wanted to kill himself, the Lord Himself came to Him:

"5And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. 6And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again." (1 KIngs 19:5-6)

Shame on AA for teaching hurting souls this horrible lie, that God goes away when we feel bad, that He is not near, taking care of us through all things!

We Frustrate God's Grace When We Worry

"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:5-7)

Pastor Joseph Prince often shares a vision which he received from Daddy God about fear and worry. He talks about how God has pipes full of His grace, His favor over everyone. Every time we worry, the pipes get constricted and nothing flows out.

When we let go, when we stop worrying, the God's grace flows in our lives.

To back up this vision, he referenced a passage in the prophet Zechariah:

"Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? 12And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?" (Zechariah 4:11-12)

I still found this illustration difficult to follow, and not very helpful.

Then I looked at the passage above, the blessed exhortation from the Apostle Peter.

He tells us that we need to submit to others, and that the Lord resists, He opposes the proud. And what makes someone proud? They esteem their abilities higher than they ough to. They think they can handle something, anything, when in fact they cannot take care of a problem or resolve a situation.

If we are honest with ourselves, there is nothing in our lives which we can handle on our own. We do not live by our own efforts to begin with, but rather by Christ in us, who is our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27)

If we are worrying, it's that we think we can handle something, and our worrying is an act from our own flesh, a way of saying: "See! I am being responsible. I am in charge!"

I have faced a very unique challenge before me these last few days. I kept thinking that I had to do something. I had to make a motion, make some kind of effort, exhaust every possibility, every demand.

I went through every motion, and I took it upon myself to do something, anything.

The strange outcome which followed, however, was really interesting. The very people whom I had to work with, from whom I had to get answers, informed me that "I still had time".

Incredible. The same well-wishing individuals had been telling me this in weeks prior. This time, that time, I realized what was going on.

Now, why had I been panicking? I really believed that the challenges I was facing were up to me to deal with. They are not.

I have needed a much larger vision of the truth, that indeed my Daddy God does care about me. For the last decade, I had not believed that My Daddy God cared about me. This sense that I was on my own, that I had to care for myself that I was in charge of myself, my actions, my steps, my everything just consumed me.

I had no peace.

It's simply not enough to tell people "Don't worry." People like me need to know that someone cares about them. 

Well, Peter answers that question:

"Casting your cares on Him, because He cares for you."

God does not worry about us. He cares for us, with loving regard and affection, like a mother hen her chicks. In fact, Jesus wailed over Jerusalem precisely because they refused His loving care!

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37)

Today, I thank you Lord Jesus for the hardships which have come my way.

I thank you that you allowed situations to occur in which there was nothing that I could do, but I realized that You indeed can and are doing so much for me--and doing so from behind the scenes!

As long as I worried, I found myself making it harder for good to come my way. I was trying my best in my flesh, and that repulses God. That is an offensive to Him! Think about it! God so loved us, that He sent His Only Son to die for us, to live for us!

If we still walk around full of cares, we are basically saying to God: "Your love for me is not good enough."

Wow! That's pretty arrogant, isn't it?!

This revelation also reveals to me why the worry that others cast on me is so infuriating! It's arrogant!

Thank you, Precious Savior, for caring for me. You carry my cares, and upon You I can cast all cares! Thank you!