What Upsets God?

Saturday, 24 May 2003

What upsets God? Is it the things we do, the things we say, the things we think, or is it something else? As I thought about this while spending time in the Psalms, particularly around Psalm 77-78, it came to me that it's not so much the actions of His people, but the reasons behind those actions that probably upsets God.
They did not TRUST Him!
Bottom line!

Can you imagine your children not trusting you?
Can you imagine they are three years old and they are worried all day because they are not sure you will be feeding them dinner that night?
Can you imagine they are five and they can't sleep the night before school starts because you may not get them there on time?
Can you imagine they are ten and they are chewing on their fingernails because they need a book for school and you may neglect that need?
Can you imagine they are 16 and they are needing advice on what to do about a boyfriend or girlfriend and they are scared to come to you because you will simply tell them to go away, that you have no time to listen to their concerns?
Can you imagine being 35, or 42, or 66 and you can't sleep, can't eat, are chewing on your fingernails, because you think your Father in heaven doesn't care, won't help you, has no time for you, won't provide for your needs...isn't that what we do?

Most children trust their earthly parents to provide for them. They never lose sleep over their next meal, if they will have clothes to wear, if someone will be there to give them a hug should they trip and fall. They go on their merry way knowing that they are loved. Trusting in their parents, not even thinking about being provided for because the thought that they won't be doesn't even cross their minds!  Barring the sad circumstances of children who have been abandoned and abused or worse, most children spend their childhood knowing their needs will be taken care of by their parents. They don't worry about it. They may nag and complain and whine from time to time for something they want, but usually that is something above the ordinary daily needs, and might not be good for them anyway!

So what upsets God? I believe it is His adult children living in this world who don't trust Him one little bit. Who lose sleep over daily needs, who complain when things don't happen as we think they should, who turn their backs on Him the minute trouble arises and wonder where HE has gone? We go searching elsewhere, when He is always with us wanting to help us. Maybe He seems lost to us, although we are not lost to Him.

We have to understand that He is very patient, but sometimes we push it way past the limit of even His tolerance.

They willfully test God in their hearts,
demanding the foods they craved.
They even spoke against God himself, saying,
"God can't give us food in the desert. Yes,
he can strike a rock so water gushes out,
but he can't give his people bread and meat."
When the Lord heard them, he was angry.
The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob.
Yes, his anger rose against Israel,
for they did not believe God or
trust him to care for them.
Psalm 78:18-22
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These people, the Israelites, were wandering around in the desert complaining about God. About His provisions, about whether He would really care for them, and this was after all He had done for them, getting them out of slavery in Egypt. They had seen God's mighty miracles. They had walked through a parted sea, they had been provided water out of a rock that God split open, they were led by a cloud during the day and fire at night, and yet they WORRIED about God's provisions!

After all that, where was their trust? It vanished so quickly each time a new challenge arose. They fled to other gods. They forgot about God's power.

They forgot what he had done -
the wonderful miracles he had shown them,
the miracles he did for their ancestors in Egypt,
on the plain of Zoan. For he divided the sea before
them and led them through!
Psalm 78:11-13
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If we want to bring that down to reality and our own children, that would be like if we fed our children yesterday, but they were worried if we were going to feed them today. That would be like there were clothes in their closet yesterday, but they would lose sleep all night wondering if there would be any there the next day for them to wear. We are their parents, we love them, we will provide for them! Can you imagine the anger that would rise up in us if they questioned us each day about providing for them? We would become so very frustrated in reassuring them that everything was going to be okay.

Again and again they tested God's patience
and frustrated the Holy One of Israel.
They forgot about his power and how
he rescued them from their enemies.
They forgot his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders on the plain of Zoan.
Psalm 78:41-43
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They forgot! We forget!! One day God provides something so wonderful for us and we are completely amazed by His power and how He has rescued us once again, and then the next day we are worried sick about a new situation wondering if our prayers are even being heard. We are not trusting our Parent, and when we don't trust God, we run out ahead of Him and try to handle the situation on our own and in our own way.

"Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
O Israel, if you would only listen! You must never have
foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god.
For it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the
land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with
good things. But no, my people wouldn't listen. Israel did
not want me around. So I let them follow their blind and
stubborn way, living according to their own desires. But oh,
that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow
me, walking in my paths! How quickly I would then subdue
their enemies!"
Psalm 81:8-14
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Our enemies, the things we worry about in this world, God would subdue them all if we would trust in Him. It may not be in our timing, it may not be in our way, but it would be God's way, and that is the best way after all.

What upsets God? We don't let Him take care of us as He would like to! We want it our way, in our timing, and we think we know what is best for us! Yes, I want to wear that striped red shirt with those purple polka-dot pants and those bright green boots and that big yellow hat because I think I look good!! I'm not asking God what He thinks because He may suggest a different outfit and I want it my way. And then when I don't get that job that I'm applying for because my clothing was not "appropriate," I will surely wonder where God was and why He did not provide the job I was seeking on that day.

Children, acting like children, not wanting advice or help and then complaining when all things don't work out just as they would like them to! Not depending on parental help when it matters most because they "know best," and yet in Psalm 81:16, God says "But I would feed you with the best of foods. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock."

God provides, He will provide, if we will only trust Him! When we don't, it upsets Him! He wants the very best for us, and we settle for scraps so much of the time!

Come back, we beg you, O God Almighty.
Look down from heaven and see our plight.
Watch over and care for this vine that you
yourself have planted, this son you have raised
for yourself. For we are chopped up and burned
by our enemies. May they perish at the sight
of your frown. Strengthen the man you love,
the son of your choice. Then we will never
forsake you again. Revive us so we can call on
your name once more.
Psalm 80:14-18
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This is a daily struggle, to trust God. This is a daily battle that we fight because we think we are so self-sufficient most times. God understands this, but it does upset Him. He loves us so very much, and He wants to be involved in our lives. That is what He created us for. To have a relationship with us. He does not want us to go it alone, to struggle each and every day. He wants us to rest in Him. To trust Him for our needs, and to wait upon His answers however long it takes.

Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They did not keep his covenant.
Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and
didn't destroy them all. Many a time he held back
his anger and did not unleash his fury!
For he remembered that they were merely mortal,
gone in a moment like a breath of wind, never to return.
Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the desert
and grieved his heart in the wilderness.
Psalm 78:37-40
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It is not shocking to God that we don't trust Him most times. It is from the days of old, back to the beginning of time. I mean, even Eve showed a lack of trust by believing Satan over God when she was tempted to eat the fruit in the garden. If she had truly trusted God and all that He had told them, she would never have taken a bite out of the fruit. She would have remembered the Words of her Father and not eaten it. Oh, the trouble it would have saved her and all of us!!

But we test, and we test and we test and little by little we learn to trust. It is a process. God knows that. He was the one who designed us, it is no surprise to Him. But just as we know our children need to learn most things little by little, sometimes we get frustrated with their childlike behavior and we get angry!  Our anger is different than God's though. Ours is born out of our imperfections. God's is born out of complete perfection.

They made God angry by building altars to other gods;
they made him jealous with their idols.
Psalm 78:58
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We get angry with our children because of some of the crazy things they do, but what God is talking about here is turning our backs on Him. That would be like our children worrying about whether we are going to meet their needs and deciding to move in next door with the neighbors because they feel more assured that there is food in their cupboards and clothes for them to wear in the neighbor's closets that will satisfy their needs even better. As parents, we would feel so hurt and rejected and we would wonder why our very own children doubted the love and care that we wanted to give to them........

Hello God! I want to move back home! Why do I even question what You are providing for me? I know you are the perfect Parent!

He cared for them with a true heart
and led them with skillful hands.
Psalm 78:72
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Heaven is jam-packed full of blessings for all of us. They are waiting there to be showered down upon us! God wants to share them with us! His "closets" are full of everything we will ever need, but if we move "next door," if we decide to go with the "neighbors" (foreign gods), if we make other idols and love them instead of our perfect Parent, we will miss out and we will upset God, and we really don't want to do that!!

Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep,
like a mighty man aroused from a drunken stupor.
He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame.
But he rejected Joseph's descendants; he did not
choose the tribe of Ephraim.
He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
Psalm 78: 65-68
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Say we move in next door and decide to live with the neighbors because we don't trust our Parent at home to provide for our needs. Perhaps our Parent will wake up and find us missing, and realize where we have gone, and we will not be chosen for the blessings that were planned for us in this life. Perhaps our Parent will decide to choose someone else instead for those blessings, one of our brothers or sisters. Someone who trusted their Parent in life to provide everything they were needing, even though sometimes the grass really did look greener on the other side of the fence. Still, they waited and trusted their Parent...

But he led his own people like a flock of sheep,
guiding them safely through the wilderness.
He kept them safe so they were not afraid;
but the sea closed in upon their enemies.
He brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this land of hills he had won for them.
He drove out the nations before them;
he gave them their inheritance by lot.
He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.
Psalm 78:52-55
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These are the very same people who then rebelled against Him.

Verse 56 & 57
Yet though he did all this for them, they continued to test
his patience. They rebelled against the Most High and
refused to follow his decrees.
They turned back and were as faithless as their parents had been.
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Generation after generation continue to turn their backs on God. But even if that has been the history of our families, we can start today and change that pattern. We can start to trust God with our whole hearts and teach our children to do the same by living that example for them.

O my people, listen to my teaching.
Open your ears to what I am saying,
for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past -
stories we have heard and know,
stories our ancestors handed down to us.
We will not hide these truths from our children
but will tell the next generation about the
glorious deeds of the Lord.
We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did.
For he issued his decree to Jacob;
he gave his law to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors to teach them
to their children, so the next generation might know them -
even the children not yet born -
that they in turn might teach their children.
So each generation can set its hope anew on God,
remembering his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.
Then they will not be like their ancestors -
stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.
Psalm 78:1-8
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I have been taught about God's mighty miracles by example. I will always remember visiting my Grandmother and seeing the picture of her 14-year-old daughter as it sat there on her end table. In the picture my aunt wore a skating outfit and ice-skates. Her hair was typical of the 1940's. She could have stepped right out of a Pearl Harbor movie set. The picture was signed with love from Charmaine. Charmaine died not long after this picture was taken, with complications from pneumonia.

My Grandmother lived with this "thorn" of missing in her side the rest of her life. But she also lived with something else, she lived with hope. That hope was displayed in front of me each time I was with her. It was not always talked about, in fact rarely, but it was lived out each day. I was not even born when my aunt died, but I knew about her. I knew about God's mighty miracles in her life and in the life of my grandmother because they were taught to me. They were handed down to my generation so that I could also set my "hope anew on God." She taught me "hidden lessons from our past - stories we have heard and know" without even knowing the impact they would have.

Little did my Grandmother know that the baby she held in her arms, the toddler she cuddled with, the three-year-old Philip who visited her in the hospital shortly before she died would be with her so soon in heaven. Little did she know that the lessons she handed down from her past would help me with my future. She simply lived what she believed, and that belief was in our Mighty God. She trusted in her Parent, and she taught me also to trust. She lived the example that I am now seeking to follow and teach to the generations who will come behind me. It was a choice she made, to trust in God, and that affects me to this day.

What upsets God? I believe it is when we don't trust Him and we don't hand that trust down through the generations. When we leave a trail of mistrust, a trail that leads "next door" when times get hard, instead of one that leads to our Father in heaven. A trail that wanders around seeking greener pastures instead of waiting for the blessings God has in store when we live with Him.

God takes care of us, each and every day of our lives. It grieves Him when we don't trust Him to do that for us. It even makes Him angry at times, even with His great patience. He wants us in His courts!

A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!
I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the
good life in the homes of the wicked.
Psalm 84:10
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Phil loved our home, and he loved our family and he was happiest when he was there. But when God gave him a glimpse of heaven two days before he died, he wanted nothing more than to be in heaven. All his days on this earth, thousands of them, where over-shadowed in an instant when he got a peek at what God had in store for those who do believe.

For the Lord God is our light and protector.
He gives us grace and glory.
No good thing will the Lord withhold from
those who do what is right.
Psalm 84:11
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What is right?

Oh Lord Almighty,
happy are those who trust in you.
Psalm 84:12
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Trusting is right. Trusting makes us happy, and it also makes our Parent very happy! There is only one that it doesn't make happy, and that is our enemy "next door." He would rather we move in with him and miss out on all the blessings God has waiting for us in the place He has provided for us to be!

O Lord, take sevenfold vengeance on our neighbors for the
scorn they have hurled at you. Then we your people, the
sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and ever,
praising your greatness from generation to generation.
Psalm 79:12-13
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Lord, help me to always trust in You, even when there seems to be a party going on "next door." The sights and sounds may be alluring, but I never want to turn my back on You.
Help me to always trust You in good times and in bad.
Help me to run to You with my "childish" questions and wait upon You for the answers.
Help me to know that your provisions are all I need in this world.
Help me to pass what You have taught me on to the next generation.
You are a perfect Father in an imperfect world and
I thank you for loving me so.
Amen!

Living in His peace and joy,
Diane