Good Monday morning. Hope you had a great weekend and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

Well, we've talked briefly about lament on the podcast, particularly about whether or not we can

get angry with God. We address that back in APJ 931, 931 as a long time ago, episode 931.

Since that episode aired, which is an episode that compares godly lament with ungodly

lament, several more questions and follow-up questions have come in on this topic. Here's one

example, Pastor John, a most recent version from a listener named Brian. Dear Pastor John,

thank you for the podcast. I'm wondering if we can be honestly angry at God for things that happen

to our lives or is such a response out of the question. Pastor John, what would you say to Brian?

Let me try to interpret Brian's question so that I can try to answer what I think he's really asking.

He says, can we be honestly angry at God? I'm not sure what he means by honestly,

because I don't know what a dishonest anger at God would be. I think he means by honestly angry,

really angry, truly angry. The other word that I wonder about is the word can,

can we be truly angry with God? I think he means should we be or is it morally permissible

or right to be? And when he asks, is it out of the question? I think he means, is it so wrong

that we should avoid it at all costs? So the question I'll try to answer is this, is it ever

virtuous or righteous or godly or innocent or even morally neutral to experience, to feel?

I'm not talking about what you say, I'm talking about what you feel, to feel heartfelt anger at God,

whatever the reason, whatever the reason, that's my question. And the short answer is,

no, never. It is never right, never good, never virtuous, never merely neutral, to feel anger at God,

never. Nepal imagines a situation where a man sees God as something he doesn't like,

isn't a proof of the way God's acting. And he expresses this, this man, this person that Paul's

thinking about expresses this in very forceful terms of resistance to God's ways is described

...