Is God a Good God?

“If God is a good God, why does He let bad things happen to Christians?”

How many times to Christians shy away from this question? Many times they skirt around the issue, giving a half hearted reply about “God didn’t let bad things happen. Man sinned first, bringing sin into the world.” I agree… man brought sin into the world. Yes. But that has nothing with which to satisfy a hurting Christian. This reply touches the philosophy of Deism, the belief that God created the world to run on its own without Divine intervention. So because man sinned, bad things happen to everyone and God has nothing to do with it? That sounds almost heretical. I think it’s time to address the issue head on.

I asked myself this question many times two years ago. In a period of three months, I was in and out of the hospital having been diagnosed with mononucleosis that progressed into more serious issues. For almost a year, my life was turned upside down. Multiple hospitalizations, frequent criticism, sleepless nights: I pretty much missed out on entire year of my before normal life. I cannot begin to count how many times I wondered how God could allow so many horrible and painful things to happen. Had I done something wrong? Was God judging me? Did he just put me through something like this because He could? Did he care? Did He know?

Eventually, I convinced myself that I didn’t know and never would. In my mind, that part of God and the Christian life couldn’t be understood. Maybe God wanted us just to trust him to do what’s best? I determined that I wouldn’t think about it anymore, not wanting to confuse myself or feel bad about questioning God and what was happening. I put the question out of my mind.

But, other Christians reminded of my questioning as they tried to comfort me. “God will work this out for good in your life.” Or “God is always with you, no matter what the trial.” Or “Just remember Job, who had everything ripped out from under him, and still trusted God.” My thoughts? Absolutely nothing that comes out of this trial will come even close to good. Do I really want God with me if He isn’t going to stop these horrible things from happening? And Job? He was perfect and dedicated to God? Why would God take absolutely everything from him only to show Satan that Job wouldn’t curse God? Sounds like a really good god there, doesn’t it? Of course I didn’t voice those treasonous thoughts. But they seemed to plague my every thought. But I would just try to push them aside, but to no avail.

Psalm 34:8 says, “…the Lord is good.”

Let’s go back to grammar school and analyze this phrase.

Lord is the subject

Is acts as the linking verb.

Good acts as the describer

Now, remembering back, linking verbs connects the subject (Lord) to the describer (Good) It can also be read this way:

Lord=Good

If God equals good, then why do bad things happen? Doesn’t that destroy the character of God? A good God letting bad things happen to those that love Him?

But think about it, if God is always with us, like He promised, then good is always with us. I think Christians have a warped idea of what is good and what is bad. What does good mean to you? To us, good can mean food that satisfies our taste buds. Good can also refer to a ranking system, such as a good performance or a good time. We also use the word good to define right and wrong. What do you tell a two year old? “Now you be good for the nursery worker.” Or “were you being bad?”

But, if we look at good as something that God IS, then it changes our view completely. God does not make bad things happen to us, but He promises to be the GOODNESS and to hold our hand as we walk through that hurt. There will always be good that comes from your trial, hurt, or sorrow because God will be there with you.