How To Pray: When God Has A Right to Be Angry!!!

We are made in the image of God and He shares many of the emotions that we do- including anger. Anger is not his first response, but He does get angry! How do you pray to an angry God? Will He hear you? Will He change his mind? Make sure you listen until the end of this episode as we look at the children of Israel's prayer from the book of Judges.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome back to the Press Podcast, where we believe that prayer reaches every single situation. Grab your Bibles with me and let's go to Judges chapter 10 today.

We are continuing our journey through the Bible. Hopefully, you're reading the chapters in between that we don't touch upon because there's no prayer specifically in that chapter. But if you read them in between podcasts, you'll get through a lot of the content of the Bible and understand better the foundation for each podcast.

As we're getting to Judges chapter 10, we are seeing that the children of Israel have not had a leader in a while. There was Moses, there was Joshua. Since the death of Joshua, they've had a series of judges, but the judges have come and gone.

They're passing on. There's actually a lot of time here passing. Judges chapter 10 outlines those judges that had lived during that time and died.

It seems that the children of Israel did well when they had a judge, but after certain judges died, in this case, Jair, you see that the children of Israel will have done evil again in the sight of the Lord, Judges 10 verse six says. And it tells you what evil is to the Lord. To the Lord, evil is when you turn and you serve any other God.

Today, there are idols that represent other gods, but we tend to have more idols that we don't call gods. We just put in God's place. We make idols of people, of things.

We make idols of our jobs, of our desires. We put them in a place where they become our driver. They become what we base our decisions on, how we determine our happiness or what we believe will give us happiness.

Whether that's in crystals or rocks, we can find different things that we set up as a way to get governance, guidance, and things that we will follow. These are other gods. And God always has a problem in the Old Testament when his people go after other things.

And so it is in Judges 10 verse six, because the Bible says when they did evil in the sight of the Lord, they served Balaam and Ashtoreth and the gods of Syria and the gods of Zion and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines and forsook the Lord and served him not. The Bible says, and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. He was hot.

That is not a new saying. Some people are like, I was hot. I was angry.

The Lord was hot. He was upset. He was furious with them.

And he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel 18 years. All the children of Israel that were on the other side of Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

Moreover, the children of Ammon passed over Jordan into fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim. And so that Israel was sore distressed. So he let their enemies bring them to a place where they would remember God.

The Bible says that the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, and this is their prayer saying, we have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God and also served Balaam. And the Lord said unto them, children of Israel, did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines, the Zidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Mennonites did oppress you. And ye cried to me and I delivered you out of their hand.

So they're crying, they're saying, Lord, deliver us. We forsook you, we should not have gone this way. And he's saying, hold on, haven't I done it this time, that time, this other time, this other time? He says, and yet you have forsaken me and served other gods, wherefore I will deliver you no more.

There is a view of God today that simply wants to present that God is love. And the Bible says God is love, but the Bible also says whom he loveth, he chasteneth, he rebukes, he paddles their bottom, so to speak. He is a good father.

So he doesn't just let his children do whatever they want and his children have consequences. But there comes a time where it's not even just chastening, there's judgment. He is a man of war, he is a judge.

He knows how to fight back. And in this instance, God's like, uh-uh, we've been on this cycle too long. I'm not doing this cycle with you.

The cycle being, I bring you out, you get restless, follow something else and cry to me. And when you really need me, I show up. And then I show up, you get restless and you follow something else.

And it keeps cycling, it keeps going. And God is telling them, I'm not doing it this time. That was his response to their prayer.

I'm not doing it this time. This time there's consequences. The sad part about this is beyond the consequences is the mindset that so many have today that I can just keep saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and he has to forgive me.

He has to move on. There's no scripture for that. There's scripture for his character being merciful, that he enjoys being merciful and gracious and slow to anger.

That's who he is. But it doesn't say he never gets angry or he's always merciful. It's saying his inclination is towards mercy and his inclination is towards grace.

But everybody has their point of no return. When they'll look at you and say, no more. And that's where God is with the children of Israel.

He's like, no more. I'm not doing this again with you. I have been merciful.

I have been slow to anger. I have been there. I have made ways out of no ways.

And you are telling me how sorry you are, but you keep doing the same thing. And today he's saying, no more. He tells them this time, go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen.

Let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. In other words, why are you coming to me? The ones you chase after, go talk to them. And we know they have ears, but hear not.

They have eyes, but see not. They have hands, but they can't touch anything, can't create anything. But since that's what you wanted, go after that, ask that to help you.

It is a reality check and sobering to remember that God does not have to be merciful to us, but it's necessary in this hour where we want to emphasize that God is love, that we understand there's more to him than that. Even in judgment, he shows love because where he will judge one generation, it's to save and start over with the next. So the Bible says that the children of Israel said unto the Lord in verse 15, and this is the other portion of their prayer.

We have sinned. Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee. Deliver us only, we pray thee this day.

In other words, I know you're right, we're wrong. Just help me, help me, help me today. How human is that? That when you realize you're in over your head, instead of dealing with what got you in here, just let's skip that, let's come back to that another time.

Fine, I'll change what I gotta change, but today I need help. I've been in scenarios like that with people where you try to tell them something and you've told them multiple times, and then when they finally see you're right, they want you to rush in and help them. They want to make their failure to plan or their failure to follow instructions your emergency.

And in that instance, you have a choice. Are your failures my emergency? Mercy can say yes, or mercy can say no. And that's just coming from you, from a righteous God who's never made a mistake.

He does have the right to be less merciful, to be less inclined to help, but you don't see his response here. You don't see where God is still talking to them about it. You see them still talking to him, but the last word he was going to share on it, he already said in this chapter.

But what you do see in verse 16, is they did start putting away their strange gods from among them, and they began serving the Lord. And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. The Lord was grieving them.

It does not bring him pleasure to reprimand or punish his children. It doesn't bring him pleasure to have to walk away or turn his back. He loves his children.

And any good parent understands this when you have to redirect or correct your children, and you know you've told them many times, you know whatever consequence you're giving them, they deserve, but you also know you don't take any pleasure in seeing their tears or their consequence. But you know, if you let them off the hook this time, as you've done so many times before, this cycle will not stop. And ultimately, my consequence will be lighter and more endurable than the cycle will be to you if you don't learn how to stop.

And so as parents, as people, we intervene and say, no, you're gonna have consequences. How much more does God do then when he allows our consequences? He understands. If I let them suffer down here, if I get their attention here and now, I won't have to punish them for an eternity.

Even his consequences are, in fact, love and mercy. And God does not respond to this prayer in this chapter, but rather we see his heart, that misery that he's grieving that they're enduring. God wants you to love him, but at the end of the day, God has a right to make decisions.

Know this, however, when God is making decisions and your heart is hurting, perhaps it's not even happening to you, it's a loved one you're watching them go through, or perhaps it is you. And you know, I haven't been right before God. I haven't done the right things.

And because of my decisions, this is happening and that's happening. And I want God to hear me. I don't know if God will hear today.

I know he doesn't have to. I know they turned and they began putting away their idols and they began worshiping and serving God again. I know we don't hear an audible response, but what I also know is in chapter 11, next week's prayer, we'll see that he did not abandon them, even in his judgment.

So I say to you, even if you feel the distance of God today, even if he has the right to be distant and you know you're wrong, turn anyway, give up what's been keeping you from him, what's been replacing him and cry out for his mercy. Because sometimes what he does next is your response. He may not send an audible word, but it just may be he won't leave you either.

God bless you and remember to press and yeah, stay tuned for next week to see what came next. Join the movement, join the community, like, share and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.