Have you ever heard someone say, “God is good!”  I bet you have, but I also bet you only hear someone say it when something good happens.  It kind of makes sense; something good happens and someone gives God credit for being good(which is a good thing).  When you are in a stressful situation, and the outcome is good.  You thank God for being good.  Again, that’s a good thing, but what about when that stressful thing goes the other way; it does not end well.  What if you hear there are layoffs coming at work, and you do not “get the axe.”  What do you say?  “God is good!”  But what about if you do get released?  Is God good then?

God Is Good - Always

God’s “goodness” is not conditional or temporal.  Passages like Ps. 25:8 state that God is both good and upright(i.e. honest or honorable).  And God is does not show partiality(Deut. 10:17).  He does not turn a blind eye to those “He likes” or punish those He does not like for something they did not do.  Those are human attributes.  He is good to all(Ps. 145:9).  Does He equally bless everyone?  Spiritually, yes.  Physically, no.  There are clearly some who are more physically blessed in certain ways(e.g. some are more physically attractive, some more physically gifted, some more economically blessed, etc.). 

Every good thing that we have is a blessing from God(James 1:17).  We should be thankful for everything we have, instead of looking at others that God has blessed more(physically) that ourselves and allow envy to destroy our relationship with God(Ps. 68:16; Prov. 14:30; 24:1).  Envy defiles a person, according to Jesus(Mark 7:20-23).  In Ps. 34:8, the psalmist challenges us to taste(meaning evaluate) and you will find out that God is good.  As a result of God’s goodness, we should be thankful(Ps. 100:4-5).  God is not just good, but He does good(Ps. 119:68).   When times are hard, we need to remember that God is our stronghold(a source of protection(Ps. 31:19-20; Nah. 1:7)).  This does not mean that God will protect us from every physical harm.

None of us want to experience physical harm, and many in the religious world state that if you just do what God wants, He will keep you from physical harm.  And this is just not true.  Jesus never did anything wrong, yet He was beaten and crucified.  James was one of Jesus’ 12 apostles, and he was present at some of the more exclusive events in Jesus’ life.  Yet James was killed for his faith(Acts 12:1-2).  Paul suffered greatly for his spreading of the gospel(II Cor. 11:25).  Are there some things that God protects us from?  I am certain there are, but there are also other things He does not protect us from(physically).  However, the physical is temporary; we need to worry about the spiritual. 

Does God protect us spiritually?  Yes.  I Cor. 10:13 states that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.  This does not mean that He will protect us from ever being tempted to sin, but He will make certain that we always have an escape.  Sin leads to separation from God(this is referred to as death in Rom. 6:23).  Physical death, which WILL happen sooner or later, does NOT separate us from God.  We need to keep our priorities straight.  Let’s worry less about the physical and more about the spiritual.  And let’s remember that God is always good.  We might not understand some things He allows, so we will have to trust in Him . . . always(Ps. 9:10).