To appreciate the good news we first need to understand the bad news. The bad news is that God is angry about something. That God gets angry should not surprise us if we believe that God is good. A person who is not disturbed by evil and injustice would not be called ‘good’. A parent who can complacently look on while their child harms themselves or their siblings would be regarded as inhuman. God’s anger flows from love not hatred. If God is angry at you then this should necessarily become the most urgent matter in your life. If God is angry at you, you will know it deep down because your life will be plagued by a deep and lingering dis-ease. However, we humans get very good at suppressing what we know innately to be true and Paul points to this here as the root of all our problems. If you are honest with yourself, you will have to admit that you have often willingly acted against what you know to be the truth. Think about this. You know it’s wrong, you know it will make things worse, but you still do it. That’s very dysfunctional and that’s what we are: dysfunctional. There are most certainly things in your life right now that grieve God. The moment you share God’s grief is the moment you begin to turn around because you will have ceased to suppress the truth of the situation. So let God show you your worst. It’s safe to be in the wrong now, because God comes to us in grace having paid for our guilt in Christ.
Think about what things in your life may be grieving God right now.
Read Romans 1:18-23
