The “Ain't God Good!” Expression is Often Misused

The Bible declares, “God is good” many times. Everything God does is truly good even though we might not acknowledge it at the time. People are accustomed to saying, “God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.” While that is certainly true, it is a cliché and not a scripture.

The correct scripture:

"For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations." (Psalm 100:5)

There are also occasions when people are very excited about what God has done for them, and they exclaim to others the rhetorical question: “Ain't God good!”

Read through four cases listed below where people might have misused the expression at inappropriate times or in inappropriate ways.

First Case

I was at a leadership conference with hundreds of leaders from local churches. During a testimony period, a leader from a prominent church in the community was the first to give a testimony.

She stood up and boldly told a story about how she was almost late arriving at the conference because she had a flat tire on the way. She didn't have a spare, but she was close to a place that sold tires. The leader knew she didn't have enough money in her checking account, but she wrote a check for the full amount of the tire. The cashier accepted the check, and the woman got a new tire with an overdrawn check.

She exclaimed, “Ain't God good!” and other leaders applauded. However, I didn't applaud after the lady said what she had done because God had nothing to do with her writing a bad check. It was her decision and not God's action. Certainly, that was not a testimony of God's goodness.

Second Case

A second case happened at the beginning of a Wednesday night Bible Study I was facilitating.

Before I started the lesson, a lady named Betty wanted to give a testimony concerning her recent medical report. She said she had gone to her primary physician for some tests for a serious medical condition. A nurse called her with bad news about the tests. Betty was upset until the nurse called back and told her she had made a mistake. She had looked at another patient's chart with a similar name. Betty began shouting and called out, “Ain't God good!” Participants in that Bible study began rejoicing.

I waited patiently until the people settled down about the news concerning Betty's report. Then I asked the congregation to pray along with me for the other Betty, who was about to receive the bad news about her health. While God is good for our situation, we should be mindful of others who have a situation that might be worse than ours and at a point in their lives when they can't say, “Ain't God good!”

Third Case

At the end of a church service, a deacon was going around giving money to everyone. He told each person that his favorite uncle had recently died and left him some money. Then he began shouting, “Ain't God good!”

He gave the same speech every time he handed bills to unsuspecting congregants. Everyone appreciated receiving the $5, $10, or $20 bill. However, some questioned the “Ain't God good!” expression because it was perceived that the deacon was rejoicing over the death of his uncle because of the money he inherited.

Fourth Case

Many pastors have secular jobs during the week, even though they preach on Sundays and teach Bible Study on Wednesday nights. Therefore, they are called bi-vocational.

When a pastor retired from his secular job, he gave a testimony from the pulpit. He said that when the person in human resources prepared his retirement papers, she made a $20,000 mistake, and the government approved it because the mistake wasn't caught. The preacher began shouting, “Ain't God good!” The congregation stood and clapped for a few minutes while repeating, “Ain't God good!” just like the pastor.

The “Ain't God Good!” Expression

In every one of the four cases above, the “Ain't God good!” expression was out of order for the specific situation. There are so many other clear-cut cases where “Ain't God good!” is more appropriate.

Some of those cases could be when God makes a way out of no way that is legal and right according to the law of the land. Writing a bad check, as the lady did in the first case, is a crime in all 50 states. It is considered a criminal offense when the check writer knows there are insufficient funds to cover the check, which can lead to charges of check fraud. That story was not a good example of God's goodness, no matter how many times the leader shouted, “Ain't God good!”

In the second case, the woman with the good medical report failed to consider the woman with a similar name who would get a bad report.

In the third case, the situation was misleading. It seemed like the church leader was more interested in the money he received from his dead uncle than in his sorrow over the death.

The fourth case is an example of fraud. The pastor and his congregation shouted, “Ain't God good!” because of a human mistake. When the mistake is revealed and the pastor has to pay all that money back, what is he going to shout then?

It is appropriate to say, “Ain't God good!” when God does something for us according to His Word. That includes His provisions, protection, compassion, guidance, grace, and mercy. In fact, God is always good whether He does anything else for us. Thousands of years ago, He sent His only Son, who died to set us free from sin and eternal death. Because of that, we can say, “Ain't God good!”