How Do We Know God Is Good?

When life is going well, it can be easy to believe that God is good.

But what happens when life becomes painful?

What happens when you pray and the situation does not change? What happens when someone you love gets sick, when you experience loss, when something you hoped for falls apart, or when you have been hurt by people and wonder where God was in all of it?

These are honest questions, and they do not make you a bad Christian.

Sometimes the hardest time to believe that God is good is when we are hurting.

The Bible, however, does not tell us that God is good simply because our circumstances are good. God’s goodness is part of His character. He is good when life feels wonderful, and He is still good when life feels incredibly painful.

We may not always understand what God is doing, but we can know what He is like.

The Bible gives us many reasons to trust that God is good.

God Is Good Because Goodness Is Part of Who He Is

God does not simply occasionally do good things.

He is good.

His goodness is part of His nature, which means His character does not change depending on what is happening in our lives.

Psalm 100:5 — The Lord Is Good

“For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

God’s goodness is connected with His mercy and His faithfulness.

He does not become good when things go our way and bad when they do not. His character remains the same.

This is important because our circumstances change constantly.

One day everything can seem to be going well, and the next day something can happen that completely changes our lives.

God does not change with those circumstances.

Malachi 3:6 — God Does Not Change

“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

Because God does not change, His goodness does not change either.

We can have days when we feel close to Him and days when we feel confused or distant, but God’s character remains steady.

God Was Good When He Created the World

We can also see God’s goodness in creation.

When God created the world, He repeatedly described what He had made as good.

Genesis 1:31 — God Saw That His Creation Was Very Good

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

God did not create a world filled with sin, death and suffering and then call those things good.

His original creation was good.

This is important when we ask why there is suffering in the world today. The Bible explains that sin entered God’s creation and brought death and corruption with it.

The brokenness we experience now is not a picture of everything God originally intended for humanity.

Sin Brought Death and Brokenness Into the World

If God is good, why is there so much evil and suffering?

The Bible points us back to the entrance of sin into the world.

Romans 5:12 — Sin Entered the World

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

God created humanity with the ability to make choices.

That freedom also meant that people could choose to disobey God.

When sin entered the world, it brought consequences that continue to affect humanity.

This helps us understand something important: the existence of suffering does not prove that God is evil.

The Bible actually tells us that suffering and death are part of a world that has been affected by sin.

God’s Goodness Does Not Mean Life Will Always Be Easy

One of the biggest misunderstandings we can have about God’s goodness is thinking that if God is good, our lives should always be easy.

The Bible never promises that.

In fact, Jesus warned His followers that they would experience trouble.

John 16:33 — Jesus Warned Us About Trouble

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus did not tell His disciples that following Him would mean nothing bad would ever happen.

He told them that they would have trouble.

But He also told them that He had overcome the world.

That gives us a different way of looking at God’s goodness. God’s goodness does not mean He promises us a life without difficulty. It means that even in difficult circumstances, He remains with us and can bring His purposes out of what we experience.

God Can Bring Good From What Is Painful

One of the most comforting truths in the Bible is that God can take something painful and bring good from it.

That does not mean the painful thing itself was good.

It means God is powerful enough to work through it.

Romans 8:28 — God Works for Good

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

This verse does not say that everything that happens is good.

There are things that happen in this world that are genuinely terrible.

What it tells us is that God can work in all things for the good of those who love Him.

That is a very different statement.

God does not need the bad thing itself to be good in order to bring something good out of it.

He can take suffering and use it to draw someone closer to Him.

God can take a painful experience and use it to develop compassion.

He can take something that was meant to destroy us and use it to lead us into a completely different future.

God Can Use Suffering to Draw Us Closer to Him

There are times when people turn toward God because they have reached a place where they realise they cannot carry everything on their own.

When everything is going well, we can sometimes convince ourselves that we do not need God.

Then something happens that brings us to our knees.

Suddenly we realise how much we need Him.

Psalm 34:18 — God Is Near to the Brokenhearted

“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

God does not move away from us when we are broken.

He draws near.

This does not mean God causes every painful situation simply to make us seek Him. Scripture does not teach that every tragedy is something God deliberately caused.

It does mean that God can meet us in our suffering and use even painful seasons to bring us into a deeper relationship with Him.

Sometimes we find God in the place where we felt most lost.

Finding God Can Change the Direction of Our Lives

When someone genuinely comes to God, their life can begin to change.

They may discover forgiveness, their identity in Christ.

You may begin to understand why they were created, and you may discover gifts and abilities they can use to help other people.

Their pain does not necessarily disappear overnight, but their life can begin moving in a new direction.

Ephesians 2:10 — Created for Good Works

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

God created us for a purpose.

That purpose is not simply about making ourselves successful or comfortable.

God calls us to live for Him and to use our lives to do good.

Sometimes the very experiences that caused us pain can eventually help us understand how God can use us to help someone else.

A person who has experienced deep loneliness may become someone who notices lonely people.

Someone who has experienced loss may develop compassion for others who are grieving.

Someone who has been through a difficult season may eventually be able to encourage someone who is walking through something similar.

God can take the places where we have been hurt and use them as places where we learn how to love others.

God Can Restore What Has Been Lost

This does not mean that everything we lose in this life will necessarily be returned in exactly the same form.

The Bible does, however, show us that God is a God of restoration.

Joel 2:25 — God Can Restore the Years

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.”

This promise was spoken specifically to Israel in a particular historical situation, so we should not take it to mean that God guarantees to give every individual everything they have lost back in exactly the way they want.

But it reveals something about God’s character.

He is a God who restores, who can take what has been damaged and bring something new from it.

God can restore our relationship with Him, restore hope, purpose and joy.

And ultimately, God promises a future where suffering and death will no longer exist.

God Can Take What the Enemy Meant for Evil and Use It for Good

One of the clearest examples of this is Joseph.

Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers, sold into slavery and eventually imprisoned.

His circumstances were terrible.

Yet God was working through the situation.

Years later, Joseph was able to look back and understand that God had used what happened to accomplish something much greater.

Genesis 50:20 — God Meant It for Good

“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

Notice what Joseph says.

He does not pretend that what his brothers did was good.

He says they meant evil.

But God was able to take what they intended for evil and use it for good.

This is such an important picture of God’s goodness.

People can hurt us.

People can make terrible choices.

The enemy can use painful circumstances to try to destroy us.

But none of those things are greater than God.

God can take what was meant to break us and use it to accomplish something good.

God’s Goodness Is Seen Most Clearly in Jesus

If we ever wonder whether God really loves us, we can look at Jesus.

God did not simply tell humanity that He loved us.

He demonstrated His love by sending His Son.

John 3:16 — God Loved the World

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The cross is the clearest demonstration of God’s love.

Jesus came into a broken world, lived among us, suffered and willingly gave His life for our sins.

God did not wait until humanity became worthy of His love.

He loved us while we were sinners.

Romans 5:8 — Christ Died for Us

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

If you ever find yourself wondering whether God is good, look at what He was willing to do to save you.

The cross shows us that God’s goodness is not dependent on whether our circumstances are comfortable.

He loved us enough to send Jesus.

Jesus Shows Us What God Is Like

Jesus also gives us a clearer picture of God’s character.

John 14:9 — Jesus Reveals the Father

“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

When we look at the way Jesus treated people, we see God’s heart.

Jesus showed compassion to the hurting.

He welcomed people who were rejected.

Jesus forgave.

He showed mercy.

Jesus confronted sin while still offering people a way back to God.

He cared about people who were suffering.

Jesus did not reveal a cruel God who was waiting for people to fail.

He revealed the heart of the Father.

God’s Goodness Does Not Mean He Approves of Everything

Sometimes people misunderstand God’s goodness as meaning that God will simply accept everything we do.

But love does not mean approving of everything someone does.

God is good, which means He is also holy and righteous.

Psalm 145:17 — The Lord Is Righteous

“The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.”

God’s goodness includes His holiness.

He does not call evil good simply because He loves the people who are doing it.

Instead, He calls us away from sin because He knows that sin ultimately destroys us.

When God corrects us, that does not mean He has stopped loving us.

Sometimes correction is one of the ways His goodness is shown.

God’s Discipline Can Be an Expression of His Love

The Bible even describes God’s correction as an expression of His love.

Hebrews 12:6 — The Lord Chastens Those He Loves

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

A loving parent does not allow a child to run toward something dangerous without warning them.

In the same way, God corrects His children.

His correction may not always feel pleasant, but that does not make it unloving.

God wants us to grow.

He wants us to turn away from things that harm us and move toward Him.

God’s Goodness Does Not Depend on What We Feel

There will be times when you do not feel like God is good.

It is important to be honest about that.

If you are grieving, exhausted, frightened or disappointed, someone simply telling you, “God is good,” may not make the pain disappear.

You may understand the words intellectually while your heart is still struggling.

The Bible gives us permission to bring those feelings to God.

The Psalms are filled with people crying out to Him when they were hurting.

Psalm 13:1–2 — A Cry From Someone Who Is Hurting

“How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”

David was not pretending everything was fine.

He brought his pain honestly to God.

That is something we can do too.

Faith does not mean pretending that we are not hurting.

It means bringing our hurt to God instead of believing that our pain is the final truth about who He is.

We May Not Understand What God Is Doing

There will be situations in this life where we simply do not understand God’s reasons.

We may pray for something and not receive the answer we hoped for.

We may ask God why something happened and never receive a complete explanation.

That can be incredibly difficult.

But not understanding God does not mean that God is not good.

Isaiah 55:8–9 — God’s Ways Are Higher Than Ours

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

There are things God knows that we do not.

We see one small part of the story.

God sees the whole thing.

That does not mean we should use this as an excuse to ignore suffering or stop asking questions. It simply means we can acknowledge that our understanding is limited.

Sometimes faith means saying, “God, I don’t understand this, but I still choose to trust You.”

God Is Good Even When We Are Waiting

Waiting can be one of the hardest parts of faith.

You may have prayed for years about something.

You may be waiting for healing, restoration, provision, direction or a change in circumstances.

The waiting can make you wonder whether God has forgotten you.

Psalm 27:13–14 — Wait on the Lord

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”

David connected waiting with believing that he would still see God’s goodness.

Sometimes God’s timing is different from ours.

That does not mean He is absent.

God’s Goodness Gives Us a Reason to Trust Him

We can trust God because His character is trustworthy.

Psalm 34:8 — Taste and See That the Lord Is Good

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”

The invitation is not simply to know facts about God.

It is to trust Him personally.

As we walk with God, we begin to see His faithfulness in ways that are difficult to explain to someone who has never experienced it.

We see Him answer prayers, give strength when we thought we had none left, bring people into our lives at the right time and we see Him open doors we could not have opened ourselves.

Sometimes His answer is different from what we wanted, yet He remains faithful.

God’s Goodness Gives Us Hope for the Future

The greatest evidence that suffering will not have the final word is the future God has promised.

God will ultimately remove suffering, death and pain from His creation.

Revelation 21:3–4 — God Will Wipe Away Every Tear

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

This is where the story is going.

God did not create humanity for an eternity of suffering.

Sin brought death and brokenness into the world, but God has promised that one day He will make all things new.

That gives us hope when life is painful.

So How Do We Know God Is Good?

We know God is good because the Bible tells us that goodness is part of His character.

We see His goodness in creation, in His mercy and faithfullness, His patience with humanity.

It is most clearly seen in Jesus, who came into the world and gave His life for us.

We also see God’s goodness in the way He can take broken things and bring something good from them.

That does not mean every painful thing that happens is good.

It does not mean we have to pretend that suffering does not hurt, or that we always understand why God allows certain things.

It means that God is greater than what has happened to us.

God can take suffering and use it to draw us closer to Him.

He can take brokenness and bring healing, He can take what was meant for evil and use it for good.

He can take someone who feels completely lost and lead them toward a purpose they never knew they had.

God can take the person who has been deeply hurt and eventually use their story to bring comfort and hope to someone else.

And ultimately, He promises to restore what sin has broken and bring us into a future where suffering and death are gone.

You Can Trust God’s Goodness Even When You Don’t Understand

If you are going through something difficult right now, you may not be able to see what God is doing.

You may not understand why He has allowed something to happen and you may even be angry with Him or wondering whether He is really there.

Bring those feelings to God, you do not have to pretend you don’t have these feelings.

God already knows what is in your heart.

Psalm 46:1 — God Is Our Refuge

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

God does not promise that we will never experience trouble.

He promises that He will be our refuge in the middle of it.

That is why we can trust Him even when we do not understand Him.

God’s goodness is not measured by whether today went the way we wanted.

It is seen in who He is, His mercy, His faithfulness and it is seen in Jesus.

And it is seen in the promise that He can take even the most painful parts of our story and use them for His purposes.

You may not understand what God is doing right now.

You may not know how your situation will turn out.

But you can know this:

God is good.

And because He is good, you can bring your pain to Him, trust Him with what you cannot control, and allow Him to lead you toward the future He has for you.

Nahum 1:7 — The Lord Is Good in Trouble

“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.”

God is not only good when life is good.

He is good in the day of trouble too.

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