How can we say God is good for doing something good for us when something bad happens to another?

General Faith
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I was reading an article from Focus on the Family about how blessed we (meaning Americans, they obviously don’t get that they could have readers from other countries) are so blessed to be born in America. Yes Americans are, but what about the people in other countries? If someone yes God is good for letting them be born in America when He let someone else be born in North Korea? How is that good? So is God really good to all people are just some? It’s confusing stuff. in a nutshell what it means is the world isn’t fair. Someone’s gain is someone else’s loss. It’s just so confusing.

Another thing I want to add is with the World Cup going on, patriots are enjoying seeing Europeans enjoy American things such as fast food, Buc-ee’s (a giant convience stores) and sports culture. But the problem is all those things are very destructive to our bodies and lifestyles. So why is this Gods blessing? I wouldn’t think God wants to wreck our bodies.

Thoughts?

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You got a whole lot jumbled up here. God did not create America. We did. Humans. We came here, of course, it can be looked at in many different ways, but in the end, the Founding Fathers created the Constitution of the United States, for the main reason of religious freedom. This is what the First Amentment is all about.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Are you forchant to be born in this country? YES. Let us start by getting real. You are not poor. You are actually a “one-percenter.” Not joking. If you make at least $50,000 grand a year, you are in the top one percent of the wealthiest people in the world. If you make just $10,000 a year, you are one of the richest people to ever walk the earth. More than a third of people on earth live on less than $2 a day. 1.2 billion live on less than $1.25.

Think about this. If you are “poor” in this country, you still have a roof over your head. Electricity, running water, heat, and AC, food on the table, oh, and TV, Cellphones, Cloths sitting around we never wear, and one to two cars in the Driveway. Here is a statistic for ya. Americans spend roughly $465 BILLION every Christmas. The amount American consumers spend buying stuff at the holidays is greater than the GDP of some of the world’s poorest countries.

We created " In God We Trust," and “One Nation Under God.” God was in Government, Schools, and the majority of homes. America grew. So yes, you are blessed if you live in America. The poor in other countries? Eat dirt and die.

“In a nutshell, what it means is the world isn’t fair.” Nope, never has been.
Peter

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I think this is one of those questions that humbles us. It reminds me that gratitude and compassion are not opposites.

We can thank God for blessings in our own lives while also grieving with those who suffer and praying for them. Rejoicing that I have food, freedom, or health does not mean I am glad that someone else lacks those things.

I also don’t think every blessing in one person’s life necessarily comes at the expense of another. Jesus said that God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Life is not equally distributed, and much suffering is the result of living in a fallen world.

So perhaps part of acknowledging God’s goodness is not only giving thanks for what we have, but also allowing that gratitude to make us more compassionate toward those who have less.

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How can I have peace with God when he clearly isn’t fair?

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He is fair. Mankind is not. The systems we created are not. The world, run by the devil, is not. God is.
Peter

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Some Christians examine their lives looking for signs and portent to try to guess what God might be doing. Often their measurement criteria is their comfort or good “fortune”.

Considering how spiritually corruptible prosperity is, it would seem a poor yardstick to measure God’s blessing.

Many think they honor God by assigning to him every pleasant thing they encounter. However, God is not honored by that which is not true.

This common aspect of wider Christianity is simply a measure of our general immaturity.

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@Josiah
I am not here to defend “Focus on the Family”, nor the writer who was proffering the ideas you object to. I didn’t even read the article you read, and so I can’t really even speak to that. I can suggest that your (and my) concepts of “good” and “blessing” are probably very far misaligned with God’s understanding of those same ideas.

When Asaph wrote “Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart, (Psalm 73:1) or when Jesus said “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. (Mark 10:18) they surely had a Godly definition of “goodness” that is unlike what we may hold.

When I hear many people speak of “the goodness of God” they usually mean that they hold Him responsible for some form of personal, experiential, pleasure they have felt, or that they can imagine. It may be worldly wealth, health and/or freedom from illness, power, prestige, influence, ease, pleasant relationships, personal freedom, fairness, satisfaction, etc., but these are common likings of all men, good and bad. You are correct that there is a great disparity of “pleasures” in our world, and there is no evidence that the good are rewarded with these pleasures but they are withheld from bad people. In fact, it is obvious that bad people often experience what we call good things, and good people regularly experience so-called bad things. Those who believe in God may erroneously conclude that since God has the power to rectify this disparity, He would be righteous to do so. The fact that the disparity continues may lead some to believe God is unfair, He is not righteous, but pernicious by turning a blind-eye to bad people experiencing good and good people experiencing evil. Since it is believed unfairness (disparagement) is not good, and unfairness is ubiquitous, then any god who could stop it, and fails to do so, must not be good, but fickle and uncaring. This seems to be your argument.

But, we know God IS Good because God IS Love. Love is who God is, He cannot be otherwise. Godly goodness, and Godly Love are sacrificial, and not at all similar to human goodness and human love which are selfish at their root. He actually reveals this about Himself through His prophet Isaiah when He tells the world: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). What are those “higher ways” and “Higher thoughts”; what does this mean that God is higher in His ways and thoughts?

The apostle encourages the assembly at Colossi in this matter when he writes: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3). I submit the “things which are above” include Godly Goodness, and Godly Love, and his admonition that we should “seek” them tells us that we don’t automatically have them already. We need to obtain them. God’s Goodness, which is “from above “… makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust alike.” (Matthew 5:45)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, in the heavenly places, in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

The “blessings” our natural man wants God to provide are usually passing pleasures, unfruitful gratifications that are not from above, but earthly (worldly), temporal, and most-often destructive. When well-meaning Christians experience these worldly unfruitful gratifications, they often attribute their wind-fall to God. i.e., God is erroneously “credited” with providing these things, even if they ultimately prove to be destructive (like wealth, power, or attractiveness, etc.)

God HAS already provided us every truly Good thing for our enjoyment, but His “Good things” often come through temporary poverty, illness, weakness, and many other things that the world despises and ridicules as unwelcomed misfortunes. Remember, God Himself was a man of constant sorrows, and well acquainted with grief. How could he feel anything but sorrow as he dwelt among, and constantly witnessed His beloved creation designing their own destruction through the pursuit of temporal pleasures, even "blaming God for thier situation.

When your definition of goodness and love aligns with God’s divine definition, you will begin to see and appreciate His perfect Goodness and Love displayed in you, and in the rest of His creation in more ways than you can count.

KP

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Good to see you are still around @KPuff.

J.

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I’ll take a stab at it, you don’t pray enough, you don’t read His Word enough.

If you studied the word more you could see that He is fair. If you lack anything, then it’s because you don’t pray for it. Scripture says, you have not because you ask not. This has to do with our free will and God will not violate it. If you keep falling into calamity then it’s always because you have fallen into sin somewhere, and the curse of earth in the fall will bring calamity to you when you have not surrendered 100% yet. So if you want no calamities or hardship you must assert your will towards the Lord and embrace Him in repentance and faith, then when you ask, He can do good unto you aside from your free will because you asked for it!

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Something wrong here…

Scripture does not teach that repentance and faith exempt believers from hardship. In fact, it explicitly teaches the opposite:

John 16:33 “In the world ye shall have tribulation.”

Acts 14:22 “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

2 Timothy 3:12 “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Romans 8:17 “If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Romans 8:35–36 Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword are listed as realities for believers.

Philippians 1:29 “Unto you it is given… not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.”

1 Peter 4:12–13 “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.”

James 1:2–3 “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [trials].”

1 Thessalonians 3:3–4 “We are appointed thereunto” (afflictions).

Hebrews 12:6–8 The Lord chastens and disciplines every son whom He receives.

The Lord Jesus Himself was perfectly obedient, yet He was “a man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3), and He told His disciples, “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).

Faith in Christ is not a guarantee of a trouble-free life; it is the assurance of God’s presence and ultimate victory through life’s troubles.

A particularly devastating text against your claim is Acts 14:22:

“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they THE PROPHETS which were before YOU”. [Mat 5:11,12]

Simply put, the Lord is saying, when you are reviled, persecuted or evil spoken of, you are just experiencing what Prophets like YOU experienced in times past.

Again, “A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and AMONG HIS OWN KIN, and IN HIS OWN HOUSE”. [Mark 6:4]

I do not think it can get any plainer than this. As a rule, in 99.9% of the cases, a true Christian who is testifying about his Sovereign God and His Absolute Sovereignty will not be accepted especially amongst his kin and in his own house! Why so?

It is because of this – The Lord said, He came to seek and to save His lost sheep, and His sheep are scattered in ‘families’ both Christian and non-Christian. So when the Lord calls His sheep out of these families the division is INEVITABLE.

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I CAME NOT TO SEND PEACE, BUT A SWORD. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. AND A MAN’S FOES SHALL BE THEY OF HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD. He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” [Matt 10:34-37

Not might, not sometimes-must./Dei…

[Asserting your will?] I find this interesting.

J.

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Hear here! Amen.

@Johann, your God must not be the kind that appears in a puff of smoke from an uncorked flask upon rubbing it.

KP

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God is not a genie who exists to remove every problem the moment we ask. Right you are @KPuff.

Keep up the good work for our Lord Christ Jesus.

J.

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I am reminded of the sobering words The Lord said to Ananias regarding His chosen vessel, Saul of Tarsus: "… the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” (Acts 9:15-16)

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I could explain it to you but I doubt you’d get even then. It’s a perspective that you don’t share.

I agree with all those scriptures you posted, every one is true, but you’re missing something.

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I’ll admit this may have been confusing to some. Perhaps if I reword it to say surrendering your will , is that any clearer?

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This is what you wrote…

I’ll take a stab at it, you don’t pray enough, you don’t read His Word enough.

If you studied the word more you could see that He is fair.

If you lack anything, then it’s because you don’t pray for it.

Scripture says, you have not because you ask not.

This has to do with our free will and God will not violate it.

If you keep falling into calamity then it’s always because you have fallen into sin somewhere,

and the curse of earth in the fall will bring calamity to you when you have not surrendered 100% yet.

So if you want no calamities or hardship you must assert your will towards the Lord and embrace Him in repentance and faith, then when you ask, He can do good unto you aside

from your free will because you asked for it!

Brother, forgive my frankness, but in good conscience I cannot agree with your position.

As I understand the Scriptures, the believer’s will is not exalted above God’s will but is increasingly conformed to it. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38), and again, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

The Triune YHVH is one (echad) (Deuteronomy 6:4), existing in perfect unity and harmony. Likewise, believers are being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), learning to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

We were created in the image (tselem) and likeness (demut) of God (Genesis 1:26–27), and through sanctification our desires are increasingly brought into submission to His good, acceptable, and perfect will (Romans 12:2). As Paul says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

It’s late here (00:26), and I may have lost my train of thought, but my point is that the Christian life is not about asserting our will over God’s; it is about our wills being graciously shaped and aligned with His.

J.

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I thought you were saying that such a commitment allows individuals to request assistance or goodness from God, who can then act in their lives despite their inherent free will. Meaning, as a child of His, He is able and willing to help you out even in the darkest of times, yet, without Him, you have no hope. Am I missing something?
Peter

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I don’t mind being corrected when I am wrong, but you missed my point entirely and have twisted it to mean the opposite of what you think I meant. Maybe it was my fault and I wrote too hastily and was thus unclear? I dunno.

Man can not exalt his will above God’s, you know that and so do I. You read my correction on that that and still seek to correct me? Maybe you just like arguing with me?

There will always be tribulations upon man until Jesus comes. God allows these tribulations upon us to test us in different ways. So, nobody said there is white picket fence Christianity when you go to the Lord. But, (listen closely) we do become targets for tribulation when we begin to walk with the Lord. But the worldly yoke of tribulation is very much heavier than the Lord’s yoke. When you abide with the Lord in Spirit in your daily life you become accustomed to handing the tribulations to the Lord, as in, thy will be done and not mine…(are you with me? Understand?)

As many scriptures as you posted trying to teach me that there will be tribulations in life, I can easily match them one for one with scriptures that say, No evil shall befall me (Psalm 91) (Job notwithstanding, but that was a test) So do we plan for tribulation and dismiss the other scriptures? Is Psalm 91 not true somehow? Is, I will fear no evil wrong also (Psalm 23)?

When you abide in and walk with the Holy Spirit, you wind up basically praying all day without ceasing. And these are ones who when tribulation arises, they immediately hand it to God and say, help.

You want to hear a testimony or two that I have about this? I walked into some pretty bad tribulation, was baffled, then I said, Lord I don;t understand what you are doing, but I trust you so I will merely wait and watch, and see what You do. And long story short, the Lord turned the bad into good and I never did feel the sting of that tribulation, only goodness. You want the long version of that testimony?

So you had me all wrong Brother. Nowhere did I say that Christianity is peaches and cream without tribulations, so please refrain yourself about talking like you did about me?

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Peter gets it. That’s exactly what I meant. I praise the Lord somebody understood me! But at least two didn’t understand what I was saying so I felt obliged to clear up the vagueness and my mistake.

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