- Is it a sin to be angry with God?
- Scripture contains a great deal of prayer that accuses God directly, and nobody praying that way is punished for it. Whether the feeling itself counts as sin has been argued for many centuries and there is no settled answer. What can be said plainly is that telling God you are angry with him is prayer, and it keeps you in the conversation. Not saying it does not make it go away. It usually just moves it somewhere you cannot get at it.
- How do I pray when I do not want to forgive?
- You pray as the person you actually are. Tell God you are not willing yet, which is honest, rather than saying you forgive, which would not be. Forgiveness in the New Testament is asked of us, but it is nowhere defined as a feeling you can produce on demand or a switch you can throw tonight. Many people find it arrives in pieces over years, and that they have to do it more than once about the same thing.
- Does forgiving mean going back to how things were?
- No. Forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things, and safety is a third. You can decide not to spend your life seeking someone's ruin while also never being alone with them again. Trust is not a gift you owe a person, it is rebuilt slowly by their changed behaviour, and it is reasonable to want evidence over time. If someone tells you forgiveness requires immediate access to you, they are describing something Scripture does not require.
- Why does my anger come back after I have prayed about it?
- Because prayer is not a switch, and often because nothing about the situation has changed. The person is still in the building, the decision still stands, the loss is still a loss. Anger that returns is not proof that your prayer failed or that your faith is thin. It usually means you were praying about something real. Praying about the same thing again tomorrow is normal, and it is not nagging God.
- What if I am angry all day, every day?
- Anger that will not lift is sometimes grief, sometimes exhaustion, sometimes depression, and sometimes pain or illness nobody has looked at yet. Prayer and a doctor's appointment are not competing with each other, and asking for help is not a failure of trust. If you are frightened by what you might do or say, or you have already frightened someone in your house, tell somebody today rather than praying about it alone.
