Daily Devotionals for Women - Today's Encouraging Word from Scripture

Your Nightly Prayer

Is God Mad at Us?
Your Nightly Prayer for Mar. 28, 2025
by Rev. Kyle Norman

TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE

“God is slow to anger but abounding in steadfast love.” Psalm 103:8

SOMETHING TO PONDER

Do you feel that God is angry at you? Do you feel that God looks upon you with a frown, displeased at who you are and what you do? Sadly, many people feel this way. They imagine God to be a cosmic cop, a being of anger and wrath who longs to ticket them for their spiritual infractions. Perhaps they grew up hearing that God would smite them if ever they stepped out of line. Perhaps their own sense of sinfulness makes them feel that they are recipients of divine judgement.

Whatever the root cause is, this fear of God’s anger keeps us from experiencing the new life that Jesus has to offer. When we believe that God’s primary response to us is one of anger or disappointment, we keep Jesus at a distance. This creates within us a tremendous amount of undeserved guilt, shame, and fear. Sure, God may be loving to everyone else, but we believe God is angry at us.

Complicating matters is the fact that scripture does, in fact, speak about God’s righteous anger. Anger, like love, appears to be an emotion that God feels. Yet does this mean that God is ever, truly, mad at us? Does anger ever replace love?

If you are someone who feels that God is mad at you, let me put you at ease. God is not angry at you. God does not hate you, or dislike you, or reject you. God’s is steadfast in love, infinite in mercy, and endlessly forgiving. This is the truth of God, revealed in Jesus, and sealed on the cross. Of this you can be sure.

Scripture testifies to the grand story of God’s forgiveness. From the Garden of Eden to the cross of Calvary, the story of God’s interaction with humanity is one of constant love. God forgives the wayward and sinful. It matters not the depth of sin, or how many times it may have occurred. God is infinitely loving, and steadfastly forgiving.

YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER

Lord,
I thank you that you are a God of emotion. I thank you that you have a will and a desire for my life; you have a way you want me to live. And because of this, I know that in those moments when I turn from you, it grieves your heart.
But your love is higher than all human emotions. While you grieve over my sin, you do not turn in anger towards me. Your love is relentlessly offered to me. Your grace surrounds my life. And so, as I end this night, I pray that you help me feel your love resting upon me and surrounding me. Open my heart to receive this love in a new way.
Give me, O Lord, as I rest in your presence, the confidence to know that you are always with me, and that your love is constantly held out to me. And when I rise tomorrow, may I rise renewed in your love, and emboldened to walk in that way. This I pray in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord,
Amen.

THREE THINGS TO PONDER UPON

1. Jesus expressed the relentless love of God in the most dramatic ways possible. When asked how many times one should forgive another, for example, Jesus tells a parable in which a person’s debt of 10,000 talents is forgiven.10,000 talents represented an exorbitant amount of money, more than any one person could ever repay. One talent alone represented approximately 20 years of work for the common laborer. To translate this amount into today’s currency, the debt would exceed 8 billion dollars.
And yet, the King forgives, graciously, freely, and completely.

2. This is the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. God does not scowl at us from a distance. God forgives. On the cross, hanging before the very people who hit him, spat on him, and drove nails through his hands and feet, Jesus speaks a word, not of anger or vengeance, but of forgiving love. “Father,” he prayed, “forgive them” (Luke 23:34).

3. The theologian Karl Bart once wrote that we must never take sin more seriously than grace. Yes, we can recognize that God is displeased over sin and waywardness. We may even recognize how stepping outside of God’s will causes God some element of harm in our lives. Yet nothing in life can ever displace God’s love and grace toward us. God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The Reverend Dr. Kyle Norman is the Rector of St. Paul’s Cathedral, located in Kamloops BC, Canada. He holds a doctorate in Spiritual formation and is a sought-after writer, speaker, and retreat leader. His writing can be found at Christianity.com, crosswalk.com, ibelieve.com, Renovare Canada, and many others. He also maintains his own blog revkylenorman.ca. He has 20 years of pastoral experience, and his ministry focuses on helping people overcome times of spiritual discouragement.