Identifying the correct way to respond to God’s wrath in a given moment is a simple matter if you ask the right question. That question is: “As a Christian, where should my loyalty lie?” The answer is: “With God.” This might sound obvious, but it’s not. As a human, your natural tendency is to be loyal to yourself first. This is why Christians pray against God’s wrath—because THEY don’t like the discomfort He is bringing into THEIR lives, therefore they feel justified in telling Him to stop it. This is a very irreverent attitude. As a Christian ALL of your loyalty should be on God’s side. Any prayer which makes it sound like you care about someone else more than you care about Him is a wrong prayer. Let’s look at some examples.

SITUATION: An earthquake devastates a city, causing hundreds of deaths.WRONG: “God, please help all those poor people!”RIGHT: “God, I know You have good reasons for everything You do. Help me to respond to this situation in a way that honors You."

SITUATION: Scores of children are gunned down by demon worshiping terrorists.WRONG: “God, please stop those terrible men and avenge those poor innocent children!”RIGHT: “God, I know that every life is in Your hands and that You are in total control of what happens in this world. Help me to honor You with faith in Your goodness and take away my desire to criticize Your work or elevate my wisdom as higher than Your own.”

Do you hear the difference in loyalty? The wrong prayers insult God by completely discounting the fact that He caused these things to happen on purpose. The wrong prayers elevate the welfare of humans as being more important than God accomplishing His personal agenda. The wrong prayers criticize God with language like “those poor people” and “those poor innocent children.” Where do we get off casting judgment on the victims of so-called tragedies? First of all, if God caused it, it’s not a tragedy. And if He killed someone, He wanted them dead. So we need to dispense with the insulting adjectives and wording that paints God’s actions as negative, flawed, or bumbling. When we pray right, we start by acknowledging that God caused the events, that He wanted the events, and then we ask Him to help us align with HIS agenda.