How Long, Lord?

"How Long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
Psalm 79:5

Do you ever feel like telling God exactly how you feel? Do you ever want to get in his face and tell him just how bad you are hurting? There are times when all of us want to 'fight it out' with God. How do we do that and still honor him? If we are to fear and respect him, how can we go to him with such emotions and anger?
    For most of my life, I never allowed my own anger to come through when I was praying. I felt that it would be disrespectful to him to talk that way. But now I have a different point of view. This psalm was written by Asaph. David also wrote many things to the Lord that vented his anger, frustration, disappointment and sorrow. So I have come to the conclusion that the overriding principle is this: Be honest with God.
   God knows us better than we know ourselves. When we are hurting or angry, he knows it. There is no point in hiding it. It is much better to vent with him than to take it out on others. God is big, really big. He can handle our emotional eruptions. In fact, I have experienced his responses to my outbursts.
    I had an incredibly bad day one time. I got in the car, went for a drive and proceeded to just unload all my emotions on God. I cried, got angry, screamed and wailed. In fact, I remember saying, "Why don't you just kill me now!" I honestly thought this would be a better solution than dealing with the horrible circumstance I was facing. But by the next morning, God had responded to my emotional prayer. The need was met, disaster was averted and my life went on.
   No matter what you are facing, know that God is intimately involved in your life and circumstances. I don't know why he allows tragedy and crisis in our lives, except to perfect us. But I do know this, it is okay to vent your emotions to him. He knows us and he can deal with our anger and hurts. God is truth. He never lies or deceives. Do you honestly think he would want us to pretend everything is alright when it isn't? Would he have us cover up our emotions and put on a phony happy face? No, he values our honesty and he responds to it. He understands that true love often involves confrontation.  It's okay, he still loves us!