God Is Good. But What About This?

Chances are, if you are a Christian or have spent any time around Christians, you have heard the phrase, “God is good.”

We sing it in worship. We teach it to our children. We underline it in our Bibles. It is one of the most familiar confessions of the Christian faith.

Yet for many of us, that confession becomes more complicated when God’s goodness collides with our lived experience.

When the pregnancy test is negative again.
When singleness stretches longer than we expected.
When the marriage feels distant.
When anxiety lingers longer than you thought it would.
When a child begins making choices you never imagined.
When friendships fracture.
When you are doing all the “right” spiritual things and still feel depressed.

In those moments, we may still say that God is good. But somewhere deeper, we might begin to wonder if He’s actually good to me.

Psalm 119:68 says, “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.”.

That verse holds two inseparable truths.
God is good in who He is.
God does good in what He does.

We tend to separate those. We affirm His character but question His providence. We believe He is good in theory, but we struggle to see His goodness in our particular story.

When something feels painful, delayed, confusing, or unwanted, our emotions can begin interpreting reality for us.

If it hurts, it must not be loving. 
If it feels unfair, it must not be wise. 
If it disrupts our plans, it must not be good.

But Scripture calls us to reverse that order.

We do not interpret God’s character through our circumstances.
We interpret our circumstances through God’s revealed character.

The clearest picture of this is the cross.

If you had stood at Calvary and watched Christ suffer, nothing about it would have appeared good. It would have looked like injustice and loss. And yet Acts 2:23 tells us that Jesus was delivered up according to the plan and foreknowledge of God. What looked devastating was redemption unfolding. What seemed tragic was eternal love accomplishing salvation.

The cross teaches us something essential for our own lives: what looks devastating from our vantage point may be the very instrument through which God is accomplishing His most profound good.

“God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves” — Joni Eareckson Tada

Romans 8:28 says,“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.”.

All things.

The lonely seasons.
The health diagnoses.
The unanswered prayers.
The unexpected transitions.
The disappointments that shake your sense of stability.

But we must keep reading. Verse 29 defines the good: that we would be conformed to the image of His Son.

God’s primary good for you is not comfort. It is Christlikeness.

It is deeper trust and dependence on Him.
It is a heart freed from idols.
It is a life rooted in Him rather than in outcomes.

This is where fear and control often enter the picture. When something we care about feels threatened, we tighten our grip. We try to manage conversations, anticipate outcomes, protect ourselves from disappointment. Beneath that effort is usually a belief that our peace depends on a certain result.

As long as that result feels uncertain, fear lingers.

But when a woman begins to cultivate a submissive heart toward the truth of God’s goodness and the rightness of His plan, something shifts. Not always her situation. Not instantly her emotions. But her foundation.

She begins to ask a different question.

Not only, “How do I change this?”
But, “How is God forming Christ in me through this?”

First John 4:18 says,
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

The antidote to fear is not courage or personal strength. It is resting in the unwavering love of God for you (1 John 4:18). As we entrust ourselves to His love, fear loses its dominance. We may still feel anxious. We may still grieve. But we are no longer governed by panic.

Love reorients us. Instead of living in self-protection, we begin to live in surrender. Instead of obsessing over what we cannot control, we learn to rest in the One who sovereignly holds all things.

God’s goodness does not mean every chapter feels pleasant. It means every chapter is purposeful. Nothing in your life is wasted. The unwanted seasons are not detours from His plan; they are part of it.

The question is not whether God is good. Scripture has answered that.

The question is whether we will allow His Word to define what goodness means in our lives.

“You are good and do good,” said the psalmist preaching truth to his soul.

Sometimes the most honest prayer a Christian woman can pray is, “Lord, teach me to believe that here,” “Teach me your statutes.”

And by His grace, He will.