Is God good when it’s bad?

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doctrine, god is good, when it's bad, why bad things happen, why good things happen, why pray

What does it mean “God is good”?

Too often I interpret that to mean He’s good when things are good for me. When I get what I want, when I am healed, I get a job or promotion, I sell my house; or my kid or loved one does the same.

Do you see what’s wrong with this picture? The entire focus is on me. God is good when I think it benefits me. That makes my thinking wrong on two accounts. One, I am centered on me. Second, I think that only what is good in worldly terms is what is good for me. That’s messed up.

Wrong doctrine: I shouldn’t suffer

Popular religious (and sacrilegious)  doctrine holds that all things work together for my good if I love God and am called according to His purpose. What we don’t realize is that my good might look bad from the world’s point of view.

What would the world think of these outcomes?

• Live a perfect life and get crucified for it.
• Give your life for the Lord on non-stop mission trips and get beaten with rods (three times), stoned,  shipwrecked (three times), imprisoned, and martyred.
• Be the only person in your group to follow Jesus during the toughest of times, be the one some think the church is founded upon, but ultimately be crucified (upside-down).

My good might be bad.

Right Doctrine: I will suffer

Let’s overlook the bad times experienced by all of the prophets in the Old Testament. What do we think of all the verses in the New Testament that tell us we will experience suffering in this life?

• Romans 5:3-5 
• James 1:2-4 
• 1 Peter 5:10
• Romans 8:18 
• John 16:33 
• 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 
• 1 Peter 4:12-13 
• Hebrews 12:11 
• Luke 14:27 
• 2 Timothy 3:12 
• Philippians 3:10 
• 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 
• Philippians 1:29 
• John 11:35 
• Acts 5:40-42 
• Luke 9:23-25 
• Colossians 1:24 

Be Careful What You Preach

We inadvertently preach wrong doctrine by:

1. Only praying for positive worldly outcomes rather than praying for God’s good and His purposes to be fulfilled.
2. Claiming God is good when things go right in worldly terms and ignoring Him and His goodness when they don’t.
   1.  “God was with me” when I hit that home run, scored that touchdown, or scored the winning goal. Guess what, God was with you when you struck out, were tackled for a safety, missed the last shot, or more realistically, didn’t even make the high school team.
   2. “God was good” when He saved the baby Moses into Pharaoh’s house from the river. God wasn’t good just because Moses’ mother believed in Him, unless you also believe there were no other God-believers among all the other Hebrew women in Egypt who wished they could have kept their male children. God was also good when He didn’t let Moses into the Promised Land.
   3. “God was good” to heal me. Yes, He is good. But, He’s also good to those who  prayed in faithfulness who were not healed. To say God healed me because of my prayers–as opposed to His goodness and His purposes–suggests I believe others who are not healed did not pray in earnest or somehow did not deserve healing.

Do I pray for worldly good to come to me? I guess it depends on what is most important to me. The Psalms clearly demonstrates God wants us to talk to Him whether we’re complaining, crying, laughing, or rejoicing. But what I ask for is what’s most important to me and what’s most important to me is what God wants. I’m good with that.