God Is Mad at Me and Other Myths Part 1

One day I put a post on Facebook that simply said, “God’s not mad at you,” and the response was overwhelming. In just a few hours, thousands of people responded, desperately needing to be reassured of this fact.

Through my own personal relationship with God, and through ministering to other people, I have come to believe a large percentage of people either vaguely or perhaps even wholeheartedly believe that God is mad at them.

Where does this belief come from? Perhaps from a parent who was difficult to please, the pain of rejection or maybe even from the church. Wherever these misconceptions about God’s wrath originate, I want to help shed some truth on these false beliefs so you can fully know that God is not mad at you!

God will never accept me like I am

The Bible is a record of sin, deceit and immorality of every kind. It’s also a record of God’s amazing grace and love. The heroes we admire were people just like us. They failed miserably at times, and yet they found love, acceptance, forgiveness, and mercy as free gifts from God. His love drew them into intimate relationships with Him, empowered them to do great things and taught them to enjoy their lives.

Since they experienced that acceptance, I believe we can experience it too. God doesn’t and never will approve of sin, but He does love sinners and will continue to work with us toward positive change in our lives.

I wasted many years living with a vague fear that God was angry with me. Thankfully, over the years I have come to know the amazing, passionate love of God, and I now know that God is not angry with me; He isn’t even annoyed with me! And it isn’t because of anything I’ve done or haven’t done; it is simply because He’s in love with me.

I’m not doing enough for God

We conducted a survey at our office, asking our employees what one of their greatest concerns was in their walk with God. The number one response was, “When can I know that I am doing enough?”

Perfectionism is fueled with the tyranny of the shoulds and oughts. It is the constant nagging feeling of never doing well enough or being good enough. We think things like, I should pray better, study the Bible more, and be kinder. We instinctively want to be pleasing to God, and we are deeply afraid we aren’t. As a result, we believe God is mad at us because we just don’t measure up.

But the pathway to God is not perfection. Some people in a crowd asked what they needed to do to please God, and the answer Jesus gave was, …Believe in the One Whom He has sent … John 6:29 AMPC.

That is so simple that we often miss it. More than anything, God wants us to trust Him and believe His Word. You can stop trying to attain perfection because you cannot buy or earn God’s love or favor. It isn’t for sale—it’s free!

Read Part 2