Is God good to everyone?

A few books in the Bible speak of God’s goodness, His mercies and His fairness, but is He really a good God? 

And if so, is He all of that to everyone?

Different people will have different answers to those questions because of their individual experiences.

Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 31:19 say God’s goodness is abundant. Psalm 23:6 says His goodness is always with us. James 1:17 says everything good comes from God and Psalm 107:8 says He fills our hungry souls with good things.

But, in the Book of Job, we hear of God allowing Satan to test Job, to see if great suffering could destroy the faith of this devout man. 

Yet, even when his family, his household, his cattle, his home and other possessions and his health were all gone, Job still held on to his faith in God. 

For some Christians, great loss is seen as a test to be endured.

But does testing faith make Him a good God?

I have a lot of questions to which I might never get answers — or maybe the answers have always been there and I am not satisfied with them.

The pain of loss can feel overwhelming; the challenge of accepting death and dying as the end stage of life is what the painful process of grieving is all about.

I have not been able to pray since the death of my older sister in December because I feel I have been betrayed by God. I really needed God to come through for me; I needed Him to answer my prayers. 

The loss of my sister was a setback which meant that the goals and plans I have for myself will have to be paused for at least two years.

The Bible says God will never give you a burden you cannot carry. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, it says, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with your testing He will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”

Is it really a test? And do I have the strength to endure it? 

My mother had two children — my sister and me. I am the only one with a job decent enough to be able to provide for everyone. My sister had two daughters, who I have inherited, and will have to bring up because there is no one else to do it.

I now have to cater for all their needs, which requires more money and also means I have to put off plans such as moving out of home, building my family a house and getting a car before I turn 30. The burden already feels very heavy.

If God was really good and fair, why would He allow such things to happen to me? To my mother? To my two nieces? 

I know this is not unique to my family — other families have lost someone too. 

But, if he is a good God, then why is He letting His beloved children experience so much pain? Is it also a test for them?

As a God of love and fairness, why is there so much difference between the poor and the rich? Is He not God of all of us?

Growing up in a township, such as Alexandra, in Johannesburg — especially in the section where I live — and getting out into the world and meeting people from other places makes you realise how poor you are.

Alexandra has a lot of problems and it is less than 5km from the richest square mile in Africa, Sandton. As as you go down Grayston Drive, you can feel the environment change. Even the air is not the same — you can smell the money.

So what criteria does God use to decide who the haves and have-nots are, and how did the likes of us miss it? What is in the prayer of the people in Sandton that we keep on missing? 

I agree with the maxim that you cannot have everything but surely essential things for basic survival such as a proper home, affordable medical aid and living fairly comfortably is not too much to ask? Not growing up in a shack and sleeping fearfully because of those big rats in Alexandra?

The saying goes that God helps those who help themselves but does he really? Why do some of us have to struggle to get to where we want to be, while others seem to have it easy? Is he being a good and fair God?

I worked hard to go to university, to get a degree with the help of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and to get a job. And yet, I still don’t have enough to be where I want to be. 

What is God’s part in helping me while I help myself?

Pastors always emphasise that we should pray and be thankful for life because someone else, somewhere, did not wake up. 

But that makes no sense to me, because some people are thanking him for big blessings such as cars, properties, healthy relationships and good jobs. I guess we shall continue thanking him for life until he remembers us.

One could argue that God is not good because he causes suffering without justification and creates humans to be inherently evil. 

I cannot understand why he would give so much power to evil people who cause harm to others — even children, who are considered to be innocent and have no sin.

Why would he let people living on the Earth he created kill other people? Why would he allow wars to take place, why would he allow the attacks on the Palestinians and Ukrainians? 

Are those not his people and does he not love them?

All in all, after carefully comparing my life with the lives of the people around me, I would say God is 

good, just because I still wake up every morning. But he has his favourites and I believe that one day, maybe, I will make it onto that list of VIPs.

I cannot wait to experience his mercy and goodness in abundance.