Does my undetectable cancer test really mean God is good?

When something positive happens, some Christians have a tendency to respond with "God is good". I got some of these replies after texting about the results of my first blood test after radiation treatment for cancer. I don't mean to knock the thought. But I often wonder, what would the reply be if the news was negative?

Does my undetectable cancer test really mean God is good? is article #30 in the series: Do not waste your cancer. Click this button to view titles for the entire series

It's like the image of Sherlock Holmes. He's searching for something.

Of course, fans of the fictional detective will think he's good if he finds what he's looking for. But will they all of a sudden think he's no good if he fails to find whatever he's searching for?

Or, when he fails, do they chalk it up to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator/author of Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, Colonel Sebastian Moran, etc? If we're in touch with reality, then we blame Doyle if we don't like what's happening in the book.

In that case, the judge of whether something's good or bad is us. We pass judgment on Conan Doyle's writing.

However, as Christians, we claim to believe God is good. Furthermore, that God is good all the time. And that all the time God is good.

Does my undetectable cancer test really mean God is good?

But, my question is this. Do we live like we truly believe that

And that's why I ask, "Does my undetectable cancer test really mean God is good?" After all, a claim that God is good because my cancer was undetectable places a condition on God's goodness. Namely, the condition is that my cancer test was negative. That, in turn, begs a question. Is God still good if evidence of cancer was found, resulting in a positive test result?

Is there a difference between God is good and God is sovereign?

If God is good either way, then there's no conditional needed or possible. If God is good - then God is good. Period. He's not good based on a test result. So, why do we only say God is good when the result is what we want it to be?

I have yet to get a reply to any positive test, throughout this journey, that's been accompanied by a God is good statement.

Instead, it's God is sovereign.

Why do we do that? Why is God good when the result is what we want? And why is God sovereign when we don't get the result we want?

Isn't God both good and sovereign all the time?

God is good, all the time - All the time, God is good

God is good, all the time - All the time, God is good. Does that sound familiar? A lot of Christian congregations use these statements as a greeting/response kind of statement.

I've been to multiple churches where this is used. I even wrote about it before. But this is the first time I decided to find out the source for it. Interestingly, while many sites pointed to verses that were the source, none of them used those words. None of them were in a greeting/response format. And none of them contained the dual statement format.

It was interesting. So many verses were pointed to by various websites. It seemed odd, because Christians tend to take verses, word for word, from some translation of the Bible. But this one is a thought. Something that required some analysis to understand what it meant.

It's not just some neat little phrases that we use in the traditional greeting/response format. It's about God - who He is. And it's about us understanding that and living like it.

From the author of the song, God Is Good, All the time

There's a song titled God Is Good, All the Time. Below is an excerpt from an article of the same name.

“God Is Good, All the Time”

TITLE: "God Is Good, All the time"
AUTHOR: Dean McIntyre
TUNE: GOD IS GOOD
COMPOSER: Dean McIntyre
SOURCE: Worship & Song (2011), no. 3026 SOURCE: Zion Still Sings (2007), no. 18
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 86:5; 107:1; 145; 145:9
TOPIC: prayer, God's presence, doubt, hope, fear, despair, sorrow, hope, singing, thanks and praise

Background

Some years ago, the phrase "God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good" became popular and spread throughout the church. It was used as a greeting and as a response, often in call-and-response pattern; and it remains in use today.