FORGIVE GOD! (Part 2)

Dearly Beloved,
Expectedly, there are both positive and negative reactions to the first part of this message last week. I have admitted in that first part that the title of the message sounds somehow blasphemous. However, I will implore you to be patient and follow this serialized message to the last part and discover the conclusion of the original author of the book that is being adapted and my own conclusion as well.
Here is the second part of the adapted message:
FORGIVE GOD! (Part 2)
“I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me” (Job 30:20-21 NIV).
Two things were established in the first part of this message: one, suffering and evil are inevitable, and two, one needs to forgive God! This second part will deal with why people get angry with God.
There are five reasons why people may get angry with God.
Reason One: one may feel that the punishment that one is getting for one’s wrongdoing extremely outweighs the wrongdoings. Cain was a good example of this (see Genesis 4).
Reason Two: one may feel that one is not getting fair treatment or reward from God or any other person/institution for one’s good deeds. The elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (see Luke 15:25-32) and the labourers in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard (see Matthew 20:1-16) demonstrated this.
Reason Three: one may be angry with God if one has “blocked” goals or unmet desires. One might have been serving God with the anticipation that He would meet one’s desires and help one to achieve one’s goals. However, a fact of life is, “We do not always get what we deserve or want in life.” This may be as a result of not fitting into God’s plans and purposes for one’s life, or wrong/selfish desires. James clarified this in his epistle (4:3). One has to always remember that declaration of the Lord in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.... As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (NIV).
Reason Four: one may have illness, particularly chronic ones, and hereditary conditions that are challenges of life. Such a “person so challenged and afflicted feels so helpless and sometimes may be angry with God for [his/her] affliction.” At times, God does glorify Himself in such afflictions.
Reason Five: God may deliberately allow Satan to cause hardship on people, or He may allow what can be referred to as “acts of God” (things that are beyond human control) to happen that will make people to be angry with Him. Job was a classic example here, and he did express his anger towards God. While I deliberately do not make use of any real life stories that Dr. Deegbe used in his book to illustrate his arguments, let me make use of this that happened to a very close person to me just some days ago. She was preparing for her wedding last weekend, and the husband-to-be died mysteriously two days to the wedding day. It is so painful. Why did God allow such?
Have you been, or are you in any of these situations? How did or do you feel for such situation? How have you handled, or how are you handling the situation? Did or does the situation make you to be angry with yourself, other person/people around you, or even God? How should you deal with your anger in any of these situations? This will be the thrust of the second part of this adapted message next week.
In His service,
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
NB
You can send your comments/reactions directly to Rev. Dr. Fred Deegbe (the author of the book “Forgive God!”) through his email: fdeegbe@gmail.com. Dr. Deegbe is a trained counsellor and ordained pastor of Ghana Baptist Convention. God bless you!