Sep 5, 2026
‘It’s a God Thing.’
9-7-26
There is a phrase you hear in the Christian community these days – every generation seems to have its holy clichés – “It’s a God thing.” More than not, the trope is employed when something unfortunate is explained or excused as if to look for a silver lining. Or it is said on the other hand to describe a fortunate outcome, a happy coincidence.
It’s a God thing.
I have always pushed back against this saying, especially when it is used as a meme: a sloppy catch-phrase that masquerades as an intentional thought. Oh, I realize that many things in life are “God things,” but… not everything. Good things/God things. But some things are the devil’s things. Satan adopts the disguise of an “angel of light,” we are told in Scripture. Especially in the End Times, the devil will “deceive the saints”; that is, even believers will be fooled.
Insurance companies call disasters “Acts of God.”
It is not only insurers who call floods and hurricanes “acts of God.” Many folks employ that label and, applying an illogical extension, analyze life’s challenges and ask “Why do bad things happen to good people?” If they are the same people who say “It’s a God thing” it actually suggests that they want to be God’s boss – in the sense of defining His job description and deciding what is a “bad” thing and even judging who are “good” people.
(Forgive the tangent: why don’t people call good things “Acts of God”? Like, when a hurricane doesn’t hit; when you arrive somewhere without an accident? When you have not caught a virus? Scripture does tell us that God is a jealous God…)
God is sovereign – part of His actual job description after all – and we must be careful when we assign what is, and what is not, a “God thing.” And we should be even more careful not to call something His plan, His “thing,” only when it fulfills our own wish-list. We know what we want… but God knows what we need.
Lincoln said, It is not as important that God be on our side as that we be on God’s side.
The Lord Who counts every hair on the heads of His children also knows the thoughts that emanate below that hair, so to speak. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8). The Bible overflows with nearly uncountable examples of trials, as men and women regard them… that were transformed into blessings. Of crises… that eventually led to triumphs. Of challenges… whose resolutions resulted in salvation.
The thief on the cross turns to his side and acknowledges Jesus Who hangs next to him… and is told that “today you will be with me in Paradise.” Three men resisted bowing down to King Nebuchadnezzar… and survived the fiery furnace. The Book of Job is an account of his misery and hard luck (to put it mildly). The core of the book however is, especially in Chapter 38, a reminder of God’s overarching wisdom and care for Job… and us.
Even Jesus’s Disciples, who lived with the Savior for more than three years and witnessed supernal teaching and miracles, did not understand everything He said. “And they understood none of these things… neither knew they the things which were spoken”(Luke 18:34). Yet it was a “God thing” that Jesus asked them to accept: His torture and death would not have been on their natural wish-list. Nor, likely, ours.
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata that was one of his most poignant. In the face of contemplation of death (it was a funeral piece) it was a profound musical sermon about trust in God. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit – God’s Timing Is Always the Best Timing. That is, we trust not only God’s timing but the circumstances, the context, our expectations even in the face of prayer and earnest appeals. He acts; we do not dictate to Him.
All “God things” are His to decide, and our duty is to trust.
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