Redress of Grievances
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:" (Isaiah 1:18)
Anytime we would have an issue with God, the right answer (hard as it might be to swallow) is that it's never His fault. But this doesn't mean that we don't bring our preconceived notions to Him. If we're not loving on Him, as He's due, perhaps we're not realizing just how much He's forgiven us. Jesus says "to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." (Luke7:47) Come now, and let us reason together...
Abraham did this with God with reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. Jonah kinda did it in regards to Nineveh. Both cities fared differently, however. In further contrasting the two instances, Abraham was humble in the extreme when petitioning God. He refers to himself as "but dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27). The same stuff that the two cities of the plain were indeed reduced to. Jonah, on the other hand was defiant even after God chose to spare Nineveh. As an afterthought almost, does God express his concern for the Ninevites who, He says "cannot discern beween their right hand and their left hand." (Jonah 4:11) The two men represent two extremes of temperament when dealing with a God who never changes.
God invites us to come to Him in any and every situation. Know that His attention is focused on nowhere but you. The details that make up your day and your life are of utmost importance. And it's those very details--after we let them slip and pile up into an overwhelming avalanche--that cause us to then turn to God and blame Him for the way things are going. Admittedly, it can be hard to retrospectively look at where we branched, however imperceptibly, from the path He set us on. And now we find ourselves in a thicket of worry and fear and despondency. But it's never God's fault is it?
"Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:6) Don't be too hard on yourself. We can't love ourselves more than God does and we certainly are incapable of disciplining ourselves in any better way than He. Job spoke this in spite of the fact that God already testified (to the devil, no less) that he was His "servant" and "an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil" (Job 1:8) When we care more about God than ourselves, we tend to need realignment in how we see ourselves as well. This is why we come to God and reason with Him. He'll show us who He sees us as.
"For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light." (Psalm 36:9)
Regress of Grievances
"And it repented the Lord that He made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." (Genesis 6:6)
God has a program that we're part of. He's moving and He's taking us with Him: "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11) This paints a pastoral picture of God as one who has utmost care and concern and compassion. And elsewhere, Peter says that God's "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter3:9) So it really doesn't matter whether one is a Christian or not. God loves us all extravagantly the same. And yet if we continue on doing the same things wrong (all of which stem from unbelief in some way, shape or form), God has to keep moving on. Because we missed Him as He is, as He revealed Himself to us. Come to God and talk with Him. He'll help you see things in His light.
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)
"That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us." (Acts 17:28)
God's love and forgiveness and understanding are extravagant.
