3 Surprising Ways You’re Misreading Signs God Is Upset with You

Inside: Discover 3 new, uplifting perspectives on the Father’s love and forgiveness when you’ stop’re looking for signs God is upset with you.

I was 14 when I first consciously started recognizing signs someone was upset with me.

I’d done something to anger or disappoint my parents. And, like the emo teenager I was, I’d retreated into black sullenness for several hours. Of course, as happens with hormonal teenage moodiness, the blackness suddenly lifted and the world looked bright again.

In a flash, I felt lighthearted and playful. So I started clowning around with my parents. In my clumsy way, I was trying to communicate that I wanted things to be right between us again.

But they weren’t having it.

As I joked around, they stared at me with blank expressions. Then they turned away from me and went about their business as if I wasn’t there.

I felt rejected and stupid.

That was the instant I learned one big sign someone was mad at me. As life went on, I learned other signs. And even as hurtful as they were, I began practicing them myself.

But even worse, I started misreading them as signs God was upset with me. And our relationship suffered because of it.

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3 Signs God Is Upset with You…or Are They?

Now, you’re in the same boat. You’ve learned to read and interpret certain signs someone is mad at you. And you’re wondering if maybe God is upset with you too.

When you wrong someone, you take your feelings and their actions as signs they’re upset with you. Usually, you feel:

Rejected and unworthy. This happens with they turn their back on you or refuse to speak to you.
Shame over your actions. This happens when they heap scorn on you because they feel upset, hurt, or angry.
Powerless to make up for what you’ve done. If your wrongdoing was big and hurtful enough, they may keep throwing it in your face. Then you feel like you can never make things right.

These are how the humans in your life react when they’re upset with you. And now, you’re using them as signs God is upset with you for your sins or mistakes.

You expect God to reject you, to stop speaking to you, and to be upset with you. This is because you’ve been conditioned to expect this reaction and treatment when someone is upset with you.

But great news: God is no human. And you may be misreading signs God is mad at you.

Signs God Is Upset with You: Does He Turn His Back on You?

When people are angry with you, they often don’t want to have anything to do with you. Even for a little while.

“I can’t even look at you right now.”

Sound familiar? You may even say these words when you’re upset. So now you think God turns His back on you when you’ve sinned.

The truth is, sometimes God is upset with you.

But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth.
Romans 1:18 (MSG)

But at those times, He’s upset because you’re hurting yourself with your actions. So when you’re wondering, “Does God still love me?” because of your messiness and sin, the answer is: Yes, He does.

And even though His heart breaks and God is upset with you when you sin, He never stops loving you.

I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Romans 8:38-39 (MSG)

Jesus’ death for you while you were still rolling around in sin is proof enough of God’s unconditional love for you. But if you need more, read the story of Jesus’ arrest and see how He helped someone who’d come to take Him to His death.

And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.
Luke 22:50-51 (ESV)

The bottom line: Even when God is upset with you, He never stops loving you.

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Signs God Is Angry with You: Is Shame a Sign?

What about the shame plaguing you over the thing you did wrong?

Every time you think about it, you feel like you’ll die, you’re so embarrassed and ashamed. Surely this is a sign God is upset with you?

No, it isn’t.

The enemy wants to keep you far away from God. And he’s using your shame to do it because it’s one of the most powerful weapons in his arsenal.

Shame whispers in your ear, “You’re a bad person. You’re unworthy of God’s forgiveness. And you deserve all the bad things coming your way because of this.”

On the other hand, guilt is a prompting from the Holy Spirit.

Guilt says you’ve done something wrong and now you need to repent, ask forgiveness, and set things right, if possible. This frees you and draws you closer to God.

Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.
Acts 3:19-20 (CSB)

The bottom line: Shame isn’t a sign God is upset with you. It’s a trap designed by the enemy to separate you from the Father.

Signs God Is Mad at You: Does He Withhold Forgiveness?

When people are upset with you, you usually have to do a whole bunch of stuff to get back in their good graces.

If they’re really mad and you want them to forgive you, you end up bending over backward to show you’re sorry.

The Bible calls this ‘works,’ and God says you can never do enough of it to atone for your sins. So if you think God is waiting for you to do enough to make it up to Him, think again.

You can’t.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT)

God’s forgiveness of your sins results from His grace, not your actions to show you’re sorry.

But here’s the thing. God forgives pretty easily. The only price you have to pay for it is sacrificing your pride to admit you were wrong.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (ESV)

Do you see? Even when God is upset with you, moving beyond His anger is as simple as owning up to your sin and repenting of it. He’ll forgive you every single time.

If you need proof, read any account in the Book of Judges.

For generations, the Israelites kept up a cycle of turning away from God, ending up in trouble, repenting, and begging Him for deliverance. And every single time, He relented and helped them.

The bottom line: When God is upset with you, He doesn’t withhold His forgiveness. All you have to do is confess your sin and ask for His forgiveness. He’ll give it to you without hesitation.

How to Know If God Is Angry with You

By now you know the truth. God does get upset with you. And you can know He is because His Holy Spirit—who lives in you as a born-again believer in Jesus—will move in you and let you know.

But God’s reaction to your sin and wrongdoing isn’t the same as the human reactions you’ve come to know and expect.

Still, you’re probably how to know if God is angry with you.

The truth is, you can see evidence of God’s anger over people’s bad decisions and misdeeds all over the Old Testament.

Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
Deuteronomy 9:8 (ESV)

On top of this, His prophets were constantly revealing signs God was upset with His people. Plus, God was usually set on disciplining them.

Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.
Ezekiel 7:8 (ESV)

You can almost feel the heat from the blaze of God’s anger leaping off the page when you read these accounts in the Bible. But His anger is always righteous. This means it’s motivated by love because God always wants what’s best for His people. And sin is never what’s best.

God is never pushed to anger by hurt feelings, the way people almost always are. But His holiness demands atonement to wipe away sin and set things right again.

Enter: Jesus the Son. He sacrificed His life to satisfy the Father’s anger for all eternity.

Because of Jesus, you don’t need to worry about fire, brimstone, or other signs God is upset with you.

What to Do Instead of Looking for Signs God Is Upset with You

I learned early on to recognize signs someone is upset with me. They reject me, withdraw their love, and hold my actions over my head as a way to make me feel bad and control me.

I’ve used these same signs to communicate my anger with others.

Too bad I separated myself from God because I believed they were signs God was upset with me. But they weren’t.

What you’re feeling or noticing may be signs God is trying to get your attention. But He isn’t in a snit over whatever you’ve done wrong lately. He’s God—He doesn’t operate like people.

But don’t take this to mean you’ll escape the consequences of your sin.

If you gossip about your friend, she’ll stop trusting you with her secrets. If you say nasty, hurtful things in the heat of anger, the person you spewed it at will keep you at arm’s length from now on. And if you lie to someone, they’ll stop trusting your integrity.

These consequences aren’t signs God is upset with you. They also aren’t signs God is punishing you for your sins. They’re simply the natural result of your actions.

So stop using these as signs God is upset with you. He never withholds His love or forgiveness from you, and He never wants you to wallow in shame.

Whatever you’ve done, God is ready to forgive and restore you right now. If only you’ll ask.

For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103:11-12 (NLT)

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