Why is it not right to get upset with God?

What we will see now are the reasons why we mustn’t get upset with God, and we will also see why it is pointless; I mean that there is no reason at all for us to do that, and in the end, it is only us losing out of it. The purpose of the enemy (the devil) is that we find reasons to rebel against God and get upset with Him. All of this is because the devil doesn’t want us to get saved, and he wants us also to follow him down to the pit of hell. That’s why he has always desired to interrupt the relationship between God and man. It has been this way since Eden when he managed to deceive Adam and Eve.

1.Why do troubles happen in the world?

It is not right to get upset with God because, many times, the conclusions and the reasons we have to get angry with Him don’t have a foundation and a reason. Most people get upset with Him because of certain situations they are going through in life, and not knowing God with their hearts makes them think that He is doing something to them, or He is the reason for their problems. The truth instead is that there is an evil in this world, and many times, we as people are the main reason for it, meaning that our own decisions lead us toward it. We are responsible for our own decisions and pay the consequences for them. It is often easy to blame someone else and God for all the troubles we have or are going through, while we may not have listened to His warnings before undertaking something or taking the wrong path. We never cared for what He says in His word, but when the trouble comes, which is the fruit of our actions, we quickly blame Him.

“Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”” (Proverbs 1:23-33)

Here, in this passage, it is clearly said that because of people’s negligence in listening to God’s counsel, He will also not listen to them when troubles come.

There is also the parable of the tares in Matthew 13:24-30 saying that tares were sown amongst the good seed, which represents the troubles and the scandals in this world. But there is a particular part of it that we often miss out on, and this is that the tares were sowed while men slept.

“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.” (Matthew 13:24, 25)

This means that the field was entrusted to them. They had to watch over it. God entrusted things to man from the beginning when He placed Him as responsible for the garden of Eden. He had to give names to all the creatures there and, in a way, had to take care of it. Then, after that moment, till today, He still continues to entrust us with responsibilities. We are also responsible for our own hearts today, to protect them from all the things that can harm them. We surely can’t do that without His help, which is the most important. So, we conclude that each person is responsible for the troubles around him, and if he is not involved directly with all the troubles happening in his life, then maybe some other person is. When someone does wrong, he doesn’t hurt himself only but also the people around him. One day, everyone who hasn’t accepted Christ will give an account to God for his actions and for what wrong he did to others, too. All of this happens because we live in a world corrupt with sin, but everyone, including us, is corrupt.

God had established things to work in this way, and He doesn’t interfere with this corruption because if He comes to deal now with the present situation at once, then maybe no one will escape, as everyone is a sinner. That’s why He has patience with all people at the moment instead of interfering directly to prevent evil, as in His eyes, many things are evil, and He has reserved a day in which He will judge everyone. If He is patient now, it is because He waits for people to repent. That’s why He sent His son to die for the sins of humanity and shows mercy and patience to all. That’s why we live in this world where we bear the consequences of our decisions. God had left us to ourselves if we can say so, and on this foundation, He will judge humanity one day. Those who believe will also go through troubles throughout this life but will have His guidance and His consolation next to them. They will also understand, in part, the purpose of what is happening around them, as God is capable of using the troubles and the complications for something good (Romans 8:28). This happens to the believers, and that’s why they see a good God acting amid this corruption and chaos created by our decisions and ways. He can still make something good out of it.

2.He is a God of order.

The other thing, or better said, the other attribute of God that we need to know, is that He is a God of order, and He also reacts with everything according to this order.

“For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33)

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40)     

These passages here and their context speak about the order regarding the prayers in the churches, but we can see the character of God in general, that He is not an author of confusion but of peace.

He is so high and so elevated that we cannot even grasp a glimpse of this greatness. However, he is still involved in the least of the details, and this is us included, as He cares for everything, and this also makes part of His nature, which has to do with order and the justice we are talking about. Many of the things He does have to do with that. He cannot bear any sin or the minimum disorder happening anywhere. If we see any disorder now that is not taken care of like it is at the moment in the world, it is for the reason we said before. It is because God is patient, and instead of sorting everything out now, as He is supposed to do, He sent His son to pay for the debt and the sin so that people can be saved and opportunity can be given to many, even if we know that not everyone will accept it.

According to His order, according to what is right, He had to let us pay now, but He decided instead to suffer and to pay Himself for the sin. This sacrifice He made just confirms His nature of order. Let’s say that in His desire to forgive us, He could have just decided to do it. Why is it that it didn’t happen in that way? Because justice needs to be served, and it cannot be avoided. It is like a natural law that we cannot prevent. In these terms, He cannot just do anything He wants as people think of Him and portray Him. Of course, He is omnipotent, and of course, He is the master and the creator of all, but He just cannot go against justice, which is part of Himself. There are rules He needs to follow, and these rules are part of Himself. Because if He could have just decided deliberately not to let us pay, then He was going to do it, but the question here is that He cannot go against His nature and just decide to do anything as many people think of Him. Yes, indeed, He can decide things, but everything He chooses will be based on His justice. He cannot contradict Himself. He cannot go against His justice as this is in His DNA (I am just giving an example here so that we can comprehend). His throne is founded on righteousness and justice (Psalm 89:14). He couldn’t leave the sin unpunished and unpaid. He couldn’t do that because of His nature. He has principles that He cannot override. He cannot contradict Himself and His principles. We can say that He is submitted to Himself. That’s why He sent His son. Because He couldn’t just decide to forget about sin (which can be defined as disorder in front of God), someone had to pay. If not us, then His Son.

He did this for love. Here, we are not speaking about things that He likes or not. These are laws that cannot be changed in front of Him. I am talking about His justice. The idea that He decides things based on what He likes and just chooses according to His personal preferences can make people upset with God. They could imagine Him as a mere man who sits on his throne and just decides what to do next based on what he likes and changes His mood as he wants to. No! God cannot be compared to some of the judges or rulers here on earth. He is not an old man with a white beard sitting on His throne. He is much more than that; we need to fear Him with deep respect. We must also know that His personal preferences are according to justice because He represents it. When we say that He is not like a man making decisions based on what he likes, we are speaking about a man with a wrong and sinful judgment based on his selfishness. God doesn’t do it in this way. He obviously likes and dislikes things, but all of this is entirely based on His justice, meaning He cannot like something wrong.

He is also not pleased when someone gets lost. He doesn’t want to send people to hell. That is the reason why He sent His Son to die. He wants to be on our side, but sadly, some people will get lost and go there as they will reject His gift. Then He will weep for them as He will surely not be pleased with that. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do…” (Luke 23:34). This was the desire and the petition of Jesus while dying on the cross. We can see His heart and intention here.

The relation or the reaction God is having with sin is to take it away completely from the picture as He cannot stand it. There is nothing impure in Him, and nothing impure can stand in His sight. It is the same as when we pass by a place with a heavy rotten smell and cannot stand it. We automatically turn our heads away. It is a reaction that takes place. The same is true of God with sin. He cannot stand it by nature, not because He just decided so, even if, at the same time, we can say that He decided it, but with a decision entirely based on His nature, which is justice and order. And He is doing all of this with a good purpose because His purpose is always perfect and always good because He is God. There are things that He cannot go against.  

Maybe for a while, He is withholding His justice and judgment now, and it looks like He is going against His principles. We see injustices and disorder. We see evil to prosper. God’s righteousness doesn’t reign in the world. We clearly see that. Nevertheless, this will be just for a time. It is this way today because, as we already said, if God’s justice manifests now, no one will be able to withstand it. God knows that there are still sinners who need to repent, and for this reason, He doesn’t come now to manifest His perfect justice. All of this came with a price, as He had to sacrifice His only Son for this to be possible so that He could withhold His justice and give sinners the opportunity to repent because His judgment was poured on the Son on the cross. He, who is the most and only innocent, died. Something unjust happened to Him without deserving it. That’s why the Father had to turn His head away while watching the Son dying on the cross. We know this by what Jesus exclaimed while on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) Because what happened there wasn’t just. Still, He did all of this for us.

All of this should prevent people from thinking about why God judges people or why certain things happen in the world. See, it is difficult to understand now, but not everything needs to be seen in a negative way. The enemy wants us to see it in such a way so that we can rebel against God. We need to know that we cannot fight and set ourselves against God as here we are not just speaking about a person, but the Creator of everything, and we live and move in Him. We are meant to be together with Him, and only we lose when we resist Him. He will continue to be a sovereign and Holy God. He doesn’t lose from that, but yes, He will look at us with sorrow because of our pain and the decisions we made. This is real love. Love that doesn’t look for its own. This is the love God is having. Most of us, as people, get sad or displeased coming out of some relationship, mostly because we lost out of it. It is not, maybe because we see the other person hurting. We can say that God instead is sad and displeased when He sees us turning our backs to Him because He sees us getting hurt by not being with Him. This is real love. Still, even when people refuse Him and take the wrong path, He always continues to be God and to be complete with His justice completely satisfied. All of this shows that what He does and the sacrifice He made is for us. He is doing everything possible but cannot break His principles and ways. He kind of did it by sending His innocent Son to die for us. In this way, He took the pain. So, it is not because of Him that He does that, but because of us, and at the same time, we cannot think of hurting Him purposely by taking the wrong path. It will be only us losing by this.

“For whoever finds me finds life,
And obtains favor from the Lord;
But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul;
All those who hate me love death.” (Proverbs 8:35, 36)

His purpose for our life is for good, but it will never go past His principles. So, He does all this in our favor but never trespasses on His principles and order. Why? Because this is the best way. His way is the best. All other ways can look promising for a while but will never lead to a good ending. One of the reasons why people get upset with God is also that they don’t accept His ways. But what actually happens is that they don’t know them; they don’t accept His ways because they don’t trust Him. People fail to trust God. That’s the problem. They don’t know and realize those are the best ways for them. He is faithful to His word and His principles, not ours. What is good is that we, being His creatures, are most complete and satisfied when we are with Him, when we please Him. His principles, therefore, are good for us. They are the best. In the book of Ezekiel, it is said that He will gather His nation out of all countries and give them a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). Still, in the same chapter, it is also said that He will do that for His name’s sake (Ezekiel 36:22). To me it means that He is faithful to His ways, and they are a law to Him. Those precepts and ways are created by Him, and He acts according to them. He has to follow them as they are right and established by Him. If, according to these precepts and His name’s sake, He wants to accomplish work in us so that we can be saved, then whatever He does and has in His mind is for our good. It is for our salvation. That’s why we need to ask Him for strength to accept Him and His ways. He has good plans for us. Plans to prosper us and to give us a future (Jeremiah 29:11). His ways are good for us because we are created by Him.

3. God’s judgement

One of the reasons why people might be upset with God is when they do not comprehend the reason for His judgment that will take place at the end of the times. I am not saying that we need to understand all because it is impossible, but when we accept and believe some truths, it is easier to understand the reasons and the purposes for which things need to happen. People ask themselves: “Which is the reason for which God must judge people?” and get upset with Him for that without trying to understand and get deeper into the issue. Sometimes, we can have questions and be upset, but we mustn’t remain there by holding onto our own opinions. Our questions should lead us to know more about God and clear our doubts, not reject Him. Some prefer not to believe in Him and to reject His existence because of that reason. They say, "How would a loving God do that?” They reject His existence because of something that, according to them, He would supposedly do. How can you get upset with someone for something that he would do if you don’t believe that exists? Well, this happens because deep inside, we know there is something true about this. Deep inside, we know that He exists and has authority. Then, instead of rejecting His existence completely, we need to get deeper and see the reasons for what He will do. If we realize that He exists, then He is absolutely worthy of having our interest, time, and desire to know Him. Because He is God, and He is above all.

The other reason, as well, is that the judgment has to do with His nature, as we said before, and it cannot be avoided. It is inevitable. Even if He wants to, He can’t just prevent it. By sending His Son, He expressed His desire to help us and change our condition. If He could have avoided the final judgment, He was going to do it, but the way He did it by sending His Son shows that there wasn’t another way for us to escape judgment and avoid it. Because if there was another way or if He could have just decided to change this principle and the way He judges sin and sinners, why would He sacrifice His most precious thing for us – His Son? All of this shows that this is the only way and that He wants to do something for us, that He cares for us and wants to give us a solution. That’s why instead of getting upset with Him for the judgment, instead of questioning Him or trying to neglect it, we have to be grateful, appreciate the sacrifice He made for us, and be willing to know more about it.

These things, even if there are many other reasons we didn’t mention here, should make us reflect when we get upset with God sometimes. There is just no reason for us to do it. The only thing we do by that is to harm ourselves as we are part of God, and we are meant to be with Him for eternity. He is giving us the opportunity to become what we are meant to be, to fulfill our destiny and purpose, which is to be with Him. By rebelling and separating ourselves from Him, we decide to carry on living the rest of eternity in the same way – being far from Him. Obviously, sometimes the thoughts of getting upset and rebelling against Him come in us, and we cannot control them, but that’s why we need to seek Him sincerely and have the new heart and nature He wants to give us.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

Only in this way, we will understand in a clearer way His majesty and some of the reasons and the purposes with which He performs His will. He knows our hearts anyway, and we need to feel free to open up to Him and to go before Him with our problems, reflections, and complaints. To express what we are, what we think, and how we feel, but in a humble way. We need to go to Him sincerely – as we are, not being proud by holding on to our state and condition but ready to change all of that with His help.