“God is good. …” We hear this statement usually in conjunction with good news or at a celebration of some kind. Also, the Bible tells us again and again that God is good. Psalm 34:8 invites us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” and 1 Chronicles 16:34, as well as a number of psalms, tells us to “give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.” (NIV)
So God is good. And when the Bible says “good,” it means that God is the final standard of good. All that God is and does is worthy of approval. God determines what is good, and he also tells us what is bad.
But it also begs the question: What is good? It is easy to say that God is good until something bad happens, and then we wonder whether God is good. But maybe we don’t know what good is. Maybe our definition of good is different than God’s definition of good.
The same God who declares himself to be good promises in Romans 8:28 “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV) We hear this verse invoked a lot, but have we ever thought it all the way through? God is, in all things, working for the good of those who love him.
But what is good? That all depends on whom you ask. For some, good would be defined as blue skies, good health, paid bills, open parking spaces and no reruns on television. They wouldn’t regard an illness as good. They wouldn’t regard a crisis as good. And for most of us, good means smooth sailing and the absence of conflict. If we could have our way, that is the kind of life we would choose to lead.
Have you ever considered the possibility that a conflict-free life could be the worst thing for you to have? Did you know that God can actually use conflict and hardship to produce something of immeasurable good in your life? Think about the most important lessons you have learned. Were they the result of things going well? Or did they often come through hardship or difficulty?
Take children, for example. They want to eat only what they want to eat. They would live on candy if they were given the option. My little granddaughter Stella would eat quesadillas for the rest of her life if she could. Whenever I ask her what she wants to eat, the answer is “quesadilla.” Every now and then, she will broaden her repertoire with chicken fingers. But she is often more interested in the fries that frequently come with the chicken fingers than the chicken fingers themselves. That is how kids are, and that is how we are. We just want the good times. We want it easy.
But conflict can actually be good in our lives. Tragedy reminds us that we can’t do this on our own. Sometimes we get a little bit too arrogant, and we forget to acknowledge who is giving us the strength to do what we are doing. James 1:2 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.” (NLT) That thing you think is bad today is something you may regard later as good.
We all pray for God’s protection over our lives, but what about when an accident or tragedy happens in the life of God’s child? Where was his protection then? In asking a question like that, we are somehow assuming that we have a right to live long, relatively easy lives and that we will one day peacefully die in our sleep at an advanced age. The Bible teaches that our times are in His hands. Our life is a gift to us from God. That breath you just drew and the next one you will draw and the one following it are all gifts to you as well.
This is something I sometime struggle with personally, because as a dad, I am always protecting. And when my son died, I felt, in a way, as though I could do nothing to fix it and that I had failed. Why didn’t I protect him? Why wasn’t I there to stop it? Why can’t I fix it? I always am able, for the most part, to fix things as a dad. Isn’t that what dads do? But I couldn’t do it in this case. Then I realized that my son is in the presence of my Heavenly Father who has fixed it. I don’t need to fix this. What I do need is for God to fix me. And I need to trust my Father who holds my son safely in his arms.
Even in death, God will keep us. Because when you are a child of God, death doesn’t mean that God has failed in His promise to keep you. It means that when that day comes for you to go home, you will be taken safely into God’s presence, because his commitment to keep you doesn’t just stop with this life alone. It continues until he has taken us into his presence in glory.
Is God good? Without a doubt, he is.
