What should you do when you’re offended with God? It does happen. We can pretend that we don’t ever get offended with God or that it doesn’t happen, but that would be a lie and there is nothing we can hide from Him. The Lord knows everything, even the very intentions of our hearts He knows. We can’t pretend these things don’t happen. The more honest we are about our feelings with the Lord, the more we will receive truth from Him.
I can think of a few people in the Bible that got offended with God – Job, Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Peter, even Moses got upset with the Lord. But the beautiful thing about every single one of them is that they talked to God about their feelings. No one hid what they felt from Him.
1 – Talk to Him about it
So what to do when you’re offended with God? First thing of course is to talk to Him about it. I know a lot of us are aware of the scripture Jesus stated in the Book of Matthew:
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. {Matthew 11:6}
I believe that instead of encouraging us to be honest with the Lord and talking to Him about everything, this scripture has caused a lot of us to hide our feelings from Him. We’re not supposed to be offended with Him, so therefore we will not talk to Him about our hurts and our disappointments anymore, or what we feel He allowed to happen in our lives. Instead of being open and honest with Him, we hide from Him. The way I understand this scripture is, that if there is something that we don’t agree on with the Lord, we must find out first what He means by it instead of going into a huff and getting offended with Him. The Pharisees didn’t like what He said and got offended with Him. They didn’t understand Him and didn’t want to understand Him. They chose to be offended with Him. This scripture also means that if you go through a trial and you don’t understand it, don’t just get mad at God and assume He’s out to punish you. Find out what’s going on. John the Baptist was offended with the Lord because he ended up in jail for standing up for righteousness’ sake, and Jesus didn’t come and rescue him. John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if He’s really the Messiah or not. Basically, the Lord is saying there are things that we probably will not like about Him, about what He says and about what He does. But if we really love Him, we will try to understand Him instead of running away and getting offended with Him. This is what I’ve been trying to say: run to the Lord instead when you don’t understand how things are and if you’re feeling offended by Him. Clear things up with Him. He’s not afraid of anything or any confrontation. He loves truth, because He’s the God of truth and truth sets us free. {John 8:32} John the Baptist got a true answer from the Lord when his disciples came back to tell him what Jesus said:
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. {Matthew 11:4-6}
I’m sure this cleared things up for John and he stopped being offended with Jesus. The Lord wants to set us free. If we don’t take the courage and go to Him to clear things up with Him, we will not ever be set free. The Lord wants us to be truthful to Him. He wants us to be free.
What’s the use of hiding things from Him? He knows how we feel about Him anyway, so what’s the use in pretending about anything with the Lord? Plus, not talking to the Lord about what we’re offended about can end up becoming a sin in our life. If we don’t believe that He loves us enough and understands us enough to accept us, even when we’re offended with Him, that is essentially a sin. It’s causing us to sin. We’re limiting God’s love and God’s grace and forgiveness in our life. The enemy can most certainly use this to distance us from God. We are offended with Him and so we will be tempted to walk away from Him. We will be tempted not to talk things out with the Lord anymore, because there is something in our heart that was hurt by Him. This can be a real problem because Satan can come in and work on us to put such a rift in our relationship with God and bring sin in our life. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Not only that, we’re not allowing the Lord to enlighten our hearts and our soul with His truth. We’re not allowing Him to comfort us. Out of anyone in the whole world God is the one that loves us very much. He died and gave His life for our sins so that we can live freely for Him. There’s no one else that’s going to love us better than the Lord. We’re not only hurting ourselves but we also hurt Him when we hide things from Him. We’re not doing Him a favor by not confronting Him with what we’re upset about. He cannot help us and that hurts Him. We’re actually hurting Him because we’re not trusting Him enough in His great love for us.
2 – Wait on Him
Job waited on God a long time. There are 42 chapters in the Book of Job, and it wasn’t until chapter 38 that God appeared to Job. Who knows really how many weeks or months or even years Job waited for God? Job waited a long time, but it was well worth it to him that he did and not give up on God. When God appeared Job was enlightened, and he knew God better than he ever did before he went through his terrible trial. God blessed him with even more than what he had before he lost everything. The Bible tells us,
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. {Isaiah 40:31}
God may not appear the first or second time you explain yourself to Him and let Him know how you feel. He might not appear for a long time, but it doesn’t mean He hasn’t heard you. He heard you the first time. But when He does appear you will see Him and He will surely strengthen you. He will surely bless you and comfort you, and let you know that He’s heard you and He loves you very much. As He did with Job.
Sometimes God tests us. He tries our hearts to let us see what’s really in there. When God finally appeared, Job realized his frailness and his humanity. He realized his foolishness. He realized God does understand all things and is way bigger than he ever imagined Him to be. He also realized how he needed to repent and humble himself before God. This humbleness pleased the Lord and God turned around and blessed him. The Lord also honored the prayers Job prayed for his friends who also sinned against the Lord, and the Lord accepted their burnt offerings and forgave them so they did not die.
When we wait on the Lord it’s not a waste of our time. It’s to see our hearts and what’s really in there, and most importantly to see God’s grace and goodness in the process. To see how wonderful He is, no matter how we feel about Him at the moment. That despite everything, He is still good and He is still so merciful and patient with us. When we wait on Him we please Him. We let Him know that He is important to us, and that what He thinks matters to us. So don’t ever stop waiting on the Lord because He sees you and knows that you are waiting for Him.
3 – Give Him Glory
And finally even when you still don’t understand why God hasn’t shown up, and you might feel apprehensive about what He must think of your making your feelings known to Him, give Him glory. Yes, give Him glory even when you don’t feel like giving Him glory. A couple of reasons why we should give Him glory: First, He is worthy of it. No one else gave His life for us at the cross to die for our sins. No one else loves us better than Him. Whether we agree with this or not, it’s the truth and it’s God’s reality. God’s reality and God’s truth are all that matters. When it all comes down to it, God deserves all worship and honor and praise. The Bible writes how we should worship and praise Him because He worthy of it. All powers in heaven and on earth belong to Him. One of these days the whole heaven and earth will come and bow before Him. Whether we fully understand it or not, or totally agree to this or not, worship Him. Because we’re going to all end up worshipping Him in the end. The Bible tells us:
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. {Romans 14:11}
The ones who are wise today worship Him before they are forced to worship Him later. Because not only do they understand that He is worthy and deserving of it, but because also they know it’s what will bring God to them. And that’s the second reason why we must give Him glory despite of our hurt: Worship brings God to us. If nothing else works in your life, worship God. Worship is simply saying we love Him. We think He’s wonderful and great. We think the world of Him and we cannot live without Him. It’s faith at work. Having faith pleases Him. {Hebrews 11:6} It’s thanking Him for who He is and how good He is even if we don’t feel like He’s been good to us, even if things aren’t going our way. Over all we know He has been good. We thank Him because despite of everything we continue to live and breathe and have our being. He continues to see us through our days. We understand we will never make it without His grace and His mercies. So we worship because worship makes God feel loved by us, that’s why He comes and is drawn by it. The Bible tells us God is love. If we want God’s love in our lives we worship and love Him. He will respond to love because that is what He is filled with – love. The Bible tells us that He is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of a great mercy. {Psalm 145:8} So even when we’re hurting, even when we’re confused, even when nothing else make sense in our lives, love Him anyway. Tell Him how you feel and be honest with your feelings to Him, then tell Him He means so much to you and that you love Him in spite of everything. Worship is also asking for His grace and for His forgiveness. It’s humbling ourselves to Him. It’s giving Him glory that no matter what, we still believe He is holy and righteous, and that He knows all things and does all things well. When we ask for His grace and forgiveness He will respond to that. We don’t know everything. We can’t just be angry and offended with God and assume we’re righteous and He is wrong. Even Job came to know this. He wanted God to acknowledge him and tell him that he had no sin, and yet when God appeared, Job realized how foolish he’s been. So much so Job ended up saying, “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes…” {Job 42:6} He gave glory to God and acknowledged the Lord to be righteous. When we humble ourselves and give Him glory we will bring Him near to us. We let Him know in the process that we love Him and He means so much to us. This brings Him near to us because God is love.
In conclusion, whenever we’re offended with the Lord, the most important thing to do is to talk to the Lord about it. Be honest with Him and be open with Him. There’s nothing to be afraid of because He already knows everything we feel about Him. He’s sole desire is for us to talk to Him about anything that bothers us especially anything that bothers us about Him. His desire is to enlighten us and to show us His truth so that we will be set free. This is the only way we can ever go deeper in our relationship with the Lord – being honest and truthful with Him. The second thing is to wait on Him. Seek and find out what He thinks in return regarding our feelings. Don’t just tell Him how you feel and then not find out what He feels about it in return. Find out the answers from Him. Why did He allow things to happen in our life? Why did He let us go through what we went through? It’s okay to ask these things. God wants us to ask these things so He can enlighten us and show His truth. We are not questioning His authority or His wisdom, we want comfort and truth in our lives. We want peace of mind. He knows this and He understands why we’re asking for answers. But if we want an answer, wait for it. He wants us to wait on Him. It’s imperative to wait on Him. Tell Him what we’re waiting for from Him. Ask Him to enlighten us. Tell Him that to know His thoughts and His feelings concerning us matters. He will come if we wait on Him because this is His desire. The Bible tells us the truth shall set us free. {John 8:32} If we wait on Him we will be set free, because He will let us come to know His truth. He wants to set us free so that we will love Him more. And finally, love Him and thank Him and ask for His grace and forgiveness. Asking for His grace and forgiveness is worship to the Lord. We let Him know He is more right than we are, and that we believe in His fairness and in His truth. We understand that He does all things well and right. He will never do us wrong. His love endures forever, and His thoughts concerning us are always good, not evil. {Jeremiah 29:11} Worship brings God to us because this is loving Him, and He will not be able to help Himself but come to us because God is love. When we worship Him and we thank Him and we love Him, He will strengthen us and He will lift us up. He will also bless us and show Himself to us better than we’ve ever known Him before. We will grow in our knowledge of Him and deeper in our love for Him. We will come to know who He is and see Him for ourselves and see that He is truly faithful and great in His love for us.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. {Jeremiah 29:13}
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. {Psalm 37:4}
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. {Matthew 7:8}
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. {Isaiah 1:18}
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. {James 4:10}
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. {Isaiah 40:31}
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You Father for Your grace and mercy, love and compassion. Father You never ever change in Your love for us. I thank You Savior that Your love is true until the end.
Please Lord Jesus, be gracious upon me today and forgive me of any sin that I hide from You. There are times I believe You don’t see what I hide from You. I know I have been offended with You one way or another and feel it’s better to keep it away from You and pretend I have nothing against You. But in the end I end up hurting myself in my relationship with you. Please Father, forgive me and help me to believe in Your great love upon me, that You will not get mad at me if I’m honest with You about my pain. You will not only enlighten me with Your goodness, but You will fill me with so much love and understanding in return. You will heal me. I believe this is what You desire for me today – to be truly honest with You about my feelings and my emotions so that You can heal me. You want to heal me and bring me back into a healthy and powerful relationship with You. I ask Father for more faith in Your love for me these days. I pray Father, in Your most wonderful and glorious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
Repost from February 2019
