What Does the Bible Really Mean by "Good?"

What does the Bible really mean when it calls something good?

For many of us, the word good has become shorthand for comfort, ease, or life going according to plan. When things are smooth, relationships are calm, and prayers seem answered the way we hoped, we’re quick to say God is good. But what about the seasons that are full, messy, painful, or unfinished? What does good mean then?

In this teaching episode, we take a closer look at the biblical definition of good and how it differs from the way we often use the word in everyday life. Instead of viewing good through the lens of circumstances, Scripture invites us to see good through the lens of God’s redemptive work in us.

Using James 1:2–4 (ESV) as a foundation, this episode explores why trials are not meaningless interruptions, but purposeful tools God uses to grow and mature His people. We unpack what James means when he says believers become “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing,” and why that language does not describe a flawless or pain-free life.

Instead, perfect in the biblical sense means fully formed and mature, a life where every season is being used to shape us into the likeness of Jesus. Complete points us to the finished work of Christ on the cross, reminding us that our identity and standing with God are secure, not earned through performance or suffering. And lacking nothing speaks to God’s faithful provision, that He supplies exactly what we need in every season to grow in faith, perseverance, and spiritual maturity.

This episode also gently addresses the tension many believers feel when trying to reconcile a good God with hard experiences. Rather than offering easy answers or spiritual platitudes, we hold space for real pain while anchoring ourselves in biblical truth. We reflect on how God’s goodness is often revealed not in the removal of hardship, but in His presence, purpose, and faithfulness within it.

Whether you are a woman who knows Jesus and is learning to trust God’s process more deeply, or a woman who is searching, questioning, and wondering if God can truly be good, this conversation offers a grounded, Scripture-based perspective that brings clarity, hope, and reassurance.

This episode includes:

• A biblical explanation of what good means in Scripture
• Teaching from James 1:2–4 (ESV)
• A reframing of suffering through God’s redemptive purposes
• Encouragement for believers in stretching or refining seasons
• A gentle invitation and prayer for those who are seeking faith

If you’ve ever wondered how God’s goodness fits with real life, this episode invites you to see good the Bible’s way, purposeful, redemptive, and rooted in Christ.

Website: www.hopeandhealinglifecoach.com

Email: amydonathan@hopeandhealing.faith

Website:  www.hopeandhealinglifecoach.com

Email:  amydonathan@hopeandhealing.faith

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Encounters at the Well, the podcast for Christian women who love Jesus, but also need coffee, grace, and honest conversations about the hard things we don't always talk about in church. I'm Amy Donathan, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. Inspired by the Woman at the Well in John 4, this is a space for deep faith, real talk, and the reminder that Jesus meets us right where we are. Messy buns, doubts, and all. In each episode, I'll sit down with amazing women who share their stories, their biblical wisdom, and of course a few laughs. So grab your coffee, get comfy, and let's dive in. Welcome to Encounters at the Well. Hey friends, welcome back to Encounters at the Well. I'm Amy Donathan, your host, and before we jump into what I'm teaching about today, I just wanted to let you guys know why I've been so quiet lately. I know it's been over a month since I last published an episode, but it wasn't because anything was wrong in my life. It was actually the opposite. Both of my kids came home with their spouses, and we found out that we are having a grandbaby come July. So my world was very full. It was joyful, it was busy. We traveled all over Missouri and had family come up to our house here in Illinois. And it was just a great time. And in that time, I didn't think about publishing an episode. I just thought about hanging out with my family. And I would not trade that for anything. But now life has settled back into a normal rhythm if there is a normal. And God reminded me of a conversation that him and I had in the car that I felt deeply that he wanted me to teach. And that conversation and that question was, what does good really mean? That question matters more than we often realize because how we define good shapes how we interpret God's character. If good only means comfortable, predictable, and smooth, then suffering will always feel like a contradiction to God's love. And scripture speaks directly to that tension. In James 1, 2 through 4, we're told this count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and letfast steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. James isn't telling us to enjoy the pain. Trials are not pointless interruptions. They're instruments God uses to grow perseverance and maturity and spiritual depth. And when life is full and still sometimes a little messy, the truth stretches how we define God's goodness. And so that's what I want to talk about today. So here's my conversation. Whenever I'm driving alone, I tend to talk to God out loud. Thank goodness for Bluetooth because people just think I'm on the phone and not crazy. But during those talks, I'm talking, God is usually just doing a lot of listening and some prompting. And so recently, on the way to the airport to pick up my husband, um, God and I started talking about the word good. Because if I'm honest, good usually means circumstances cooperating with my plans. My plans are working, my people are happy, my workout routines are consistent, work feels smooth, and I feel emotionally, physically strong. That's not wrong desire on my part. That's just an incomplete definition of the word good. Biblically speaking, good is not primarily about comfort. Good is about formation. Throughout scripture, God's definition of good is tied to holiness, faithfulness, and transformation into Christlieness. So if I'm God's child and I am, and if he is actively directing my life and he is, then his version of good must include more than ease. It must include growth. And that's where that tension comes in. Because if God works all things for his glory and my good, then maybe everything he allows is ultimately good, even when it feels confusing, inconvenient, or painful in that moment. And that realization requires a shift in my perspective. Good isn't just life lining up the way I hoped. Good is God loving me enough to shape me into someone who reflects Jesus. Sometimes that shaping is gentle. That's someone I like. And sometimes it's a swift kick in the rear, but it is always exactly what I need. Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those he loves, not as punishment, but as training. Discipline is not about rejection, it's about belonging. I've asked God more than once, why did this lesson have to be so hard? And the answer I've since is always the same. He tells me, if there had been an easier way for you to learn this, that's what I would have done. That truth humbles me because it reminds me that God's goal isn't my immediate comfort. His goal is my long-term transformation. So this gap isn't in his kindness. It's in my stubbornness and my wrong perspectives of what good is. Becoming a parent has made me understand it so much more clearly. So when my daughter was about 12, she went through a serious back talking phase. I warned her she was heading towards being grounded. She kept going. She got two weeks. She kept going. She got another two weeks. By the end of it all, she earned a full month of being grounded. No friends, no TV, just school and reading, because I felt that it was a cruel and unusual punishment if I took away her books. Did I enjoy grounding her? No, not at all. Because I was then also grounded. But I truly missed her when we had movie time and she had to go up to her room. And my heart hurt when she could have had a sleepover or was invited to a sleepover, but she was grounded so she couldn't go and couldn't experience this fun. However, I loved her too much to let her disrespect go unchecked. I would have loved for her to learn with a single reminder, but she didn't. So I had to choose the response that would actually shape her character. That's a small picture of what God does with us. God doesn't discipline from frustration, He disciplines from love. He does not escalate unnecessarily. If we ever wonder whether God is truly good, we look at Jesus. Losing a child, for those of you that maybe listen to the podcast about my story, you know that we lost a child at 38 weeks. And I can tell you that there are no words large enough or big enough to fully describe the grief that we went through for that. Um and yet, when when I stop and think, God willingly sent his only son to die for us, who might never choose him. We might never accept the gift that he gave us. And he still was willing to send his son. And friend, that reality should tell us something important. God's goodness is not defined by sparing even sparing himself pain. It is defined by his willingness to endure pain for the sake of redemption, for the sake of making us his. Scripture tells us in Hebrews 12, 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. That joy was not comfort, that joy was redemption, and that joy was us. If the cross is called good, then goodness must be deeper than pleasure. So, if God offering Jesus is good, then maybe the hard things God allows in our lives can also be understood as good. Not because they feel good, but because they are producing something good. James tells us that perseverance leads to maturity. Paul tells us that suffering produces endurance, character, and hope. Scripture consistently teaches that God uses difficulty as a tool, not a punishment. That doesn't minimize your pain. It gives it meaning, it gives it purpose. Good doesn't always mean pleasant, but it always, always, always means purposeful. And even then, we still have a choice. We can resist the process, or we can trust that God sees a fuller picture than what we can see. So when life is heavy, I don't need someone to explain it away. I need presence, I need space to breathe. And scripture honors that. Later, when our hearts begin to heal, God often reveals how our suffering becomes a source of comfort for others. And that's exactly what 2 Corinthians 1, 3 through 4 teaches us. It says, Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. I did not understand that as much until we lost Mark at 38 weeks pregnant. And even then, I mean I got lots of comfort from lots of people that God put in my life, but I didn't realize how much God would use that until after I realized that what I wanted him to do was use my pain. This world that we live in is always gonna be up and down, good and bad. Always. There are always gonna be things that happen. It's when we change our perspective to what God is actually doing in those times, growing us, maturing us, that makes it easier to handle. And so once I gave my anger over losing Mark over and told God I was tired of being angry, I asked him to use it. I wanted to be able to use this pain that I couldn't get out of to help somebody else. And over the years, I have helped so many people. And in March, my son would have been 27 years old. And just recently, I got contacted by a woman who just lost a baby because she knew my story. And she wanted to know how I could handle it. And that is what God does. God comforts us so we can comfort others. Pain does not disqualify us from anything, it equips us to be able to understand people's pain and help them through it, especially when we are on the other side of it. So going back to James, when he tells us to consider it joy when our faith is tested, he's inviting us to trust God's process, not to deny our pain. Our pain is our pain. And it's real and we feel it. And he's not saying that it's going to be a happy time or that we should, we should try to be happy and be, no, everything's great. I know this was a big thing, but everything's great. No, that's not what he's saying. He's not trying to deny our pain. He's trying to show us what these trials will do in our life. He calls us to let steadfastness or endurance have its full effect on us, that we may be perfect and complete and lacking in nothing. This was in the sermon at church today. Um, I just thought it was funny that, or not funny, but really a God thing that what I wanted to teach on tonight, my pastor talked about. And he explained what perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing meant in this verse. Because I know that in my life, I do not feel perfect, I do not feel complete, and I feel like I lack a lot. So this is the way, this is what I took from Pastor's sermon today. Perfect is that our Christian life is perfect, and that is for a couple of reasons. First, because Jesus covered all of our sins when he died on the cross, and so we are perfect because we are his. Secondly, that perfect is because everything in our life is designed to grow and mature us. Um, when we think of perfection, there is nothing that is needed and there's nothing that is lacking. And so our life is perfect because everything that comes into our life is exactly what needs to be there. So we are perfect. And our lives are perfect in everything we need to look more like Jesus. Complete. Our lives are complete because of salvation. Jesus said on the cross that it is finished. No need in us to have to do anything else for that. Lacking in nothing. And that means that God provides exactly all that we need to grow and mature and be who he calls us to be. James reminds us that God is at work in you, and that we need to sit back and let this trial, getting through this trial and the things that God is teaching us, let it teach us to be mature and to be more like Jesus and to be able to live out who he calls us to be. God does not waste anything. And as much as we want to get through the pain and not have to deal with it, it's a process, and we have to go through that process if we want to be who God calls us to be. And that changes our spiral perspective of the testing being because we did something wrong or God is disappointed in us, to being that it has value, and on the other side we're going to be different. And in the end, friend, that is goodness. God loves us enough that he lets hard things come into our lives to help us to be more like him. And if there was a different way that he can do it, he would do it that way. His heart hurts for us when we deal with hard things, just like our hearts hurt when we have to make those hard decisions for our children. So before we close today, I want to pray first for the woman listening who already knows Jesus. And if that's you, I invite you to simply receive this prayer. Jesus, for the woman listening right now who knows you but feels stretched, tired, or quietly caring more than she lets on, I ask that you meet her exactly where she is. Help her to trust that nothing in her life is wasted. Not the waiting, not the grief, not the seasons that feel unfinished. Remind her that you are using every part of her story to grow her, study her, and shape her to look more like you. When perseverance feels heavy, give her strength. When the process feels slow, give her patience. And when doubt creeps in, anchor her again in truth. Help her to rest in the reality that she is complete because of your work, not her effort, that she lacks nothing because you are faithful to provide exactly what she needs for this season. Give her peace where she feels unsettled, hope where she feels weary, and confidence to keep walking forward with you one faithful step at a time. And if you're listening today and you don't yet know Jesus, but something in you wants to, this prayer is for you. You can listen or you can quietly pray along in your own words. God, for the woman listening right now who isn't sure what she believes yet, or who feels drawn to you but still has so many questions, I ask that you meet her with kindness and clarity. If she's carrying pain, confusion, and disappointment, draw near to her. If she's searching for meaning, help her to see that you are not far off. If she feels unsure about faith, remind her that questions don't push you away. And God, if this woman senses something stirring in her heart, an openness, a longing, or even a quiet curiosity about you, I invite her to simply respond to you right now. She doesn't need the perfect words, she doesn't need everything figured out. If she wants to, she can tell you she needs you. She can ask you to reveal yourself, she can tell you she wants to know the truth. Jesus, help her to understand that you came to give life, forgiveness, and freedom, that you carried her sin to the cross, and that your love is offered freely, not earned. And if today is the beginning of her faith, hold her gently as she takes her first steps. Surround her with truth, safety, and people who will walk with her as she grows. And we pray these things excitedly and expectantly for all that you're going to do. In your name, amen. If today's episode met you where you are, I'd love to stay connected with you. You can learn more about my work, resources, and coaching at www.hopeandhealinglifecoach.com. And you're always welcome to join me on Facebook at Hope in Healing Christian Life Coaching, where I share encouragement, scripture, and reminders that you're not walking this journey alone. Thank you for spending this time with me today. Wherever you are, whatever season you're in, may you be reminded that God is good. He is present, and he is still at work in your life.