God Is Good

""No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.""

- 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV),

""Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful""

- The Holy Qur'an (Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation)

Our hero is in the direst circumstance imaginable. It Got Worse. The Big Bad is triumphant, The Hero or Five-Man Band have had a BSOD, in a few seconds there will be an Earthshattering Kaboom. And then, something unexpected happens, the protagonists call out to God, Vishnu, Illuvatar, Ahura Mazda, Morgan Freeman or Stevie Wonder for help... and their prayers are answered.

Turns out the guy upstairs isn't quite the lousy prick they thought he was.

In contrast to God Is Evil, the man upstairs is often depicted as a pretty cool guy. He wants people to be happy and for good to triumph over evil, and isn't afraid of anything. His power is not based on people liking him or a hidden plan to extract the tears of mortals. If God permits evil, it is because He respects people enough to let them make their own mistakes, and deal with the consequences of their actions, rather than evil for the LULZ. If a hero is pious and noble, repentant if it concerns an anti hero, or if the evil cannot be contained by mortal agents, sometimes divine intervention actually happens, no strings attached. Can also include God working In Mysterious Ways. After all, if God hasn't directly shown himself before, chances are He was working through the heroes.

If this concerns an Anti-Hero or unbeliever, typically the prayer begins, "Please, God, if you're there..." This is especially poignant if the character had previously gone on a massive Rage Against the Heavens rant. Perhaps his/her current condition isn't the fault of God, but rather from their own faults, the negative consequences of their own actions, or the actions of others. This may or may not be a Deus Ex Machina depending upon whether God, or agents of God, finish the villains themselves. If they do not end the battle themselves, they will provide the supernatural power-ups, Holy Hand Grenade or Infinity+1 Sword to the hero in order to save the day. This is the opposite of Have You Seen My God?, and tends to go hand-in-hand with Light Is Good.

When God Is Good, it may still also be so that God Is Flawed.

Compare God of Good, which overlaps (since, in monotheistic religions, He is this also).

Religion/Mythology

 * Of course, one of the main beliefs in any major Abrahamic religion (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) is that God Is Good. 'Nuff said.
 * Though you don't want to cross Him.
 * Killing His Son also caused nature to freak out as well, though it's likely He had a hand in that as well (in fairness, the way in which His Son was killed is...gut-wrenching to say the least).
 * There's also the existence of evil. Granted, this is less because God Is Flawed and more God considers a world with flaws a better alternative to mankind without free will.
 * Most of the Norse Gods are seen as the protectors and friends of mankind. The only real exception is Loki, the Token Evil Teammate before his prophecied Moral Event Horizon. Odin stands on the line between Guile Hero and (a heroic) Magnificent Bastard, though one of his names means "worker of evil" and he can be a massive dick to people for mysterious reasons. (He's also the guy who gets the human sacrifices.)
 * The idea of Loki always being evil is more a case of Hijacked by Jesus. He was originally one of the more popular gods, often using his cunning to intercede on the human's behalf (for example slaying a troll blockading a bridge by slipping flint between its severed limbs to prevent it healing), its more a slippery slope as he gets more and more malicious
 * In fact, most real-world religions with a God or gods have at least one whose main job description is to be an ultimate force for Good.
 * Guan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, Compassion, and Unconditional Love. She loves you, will always be there for you, and asks for nothing in return.
 * Averted in Classical Mythology, the king of the gods (Zeus) is a rapist and adulterer. His wife makes the life of his illegitimate offspring and partners a living hell.
 * To be fair, that is their respective Fatal Flaws in action: Zeus was also the god of justice and protector of travelers, and Hera looked after mothers and children. It's just... well, in most stories about Zeus, he's either sleeping around or acting as Deus Ex Machina because that's what's interesting.

Anime and Manga

 * Wish by CLAMP has Angels and Demons running around in a frenzy over the relationship the main characters (an angel and a human) have, and the Angels are worried what sort of smiting God is going to do when He finds out since He specifically ordered for this kind of pairing not to happen. When God does reveal His opinion on the situation, it turns out that
 * And on the other end of the spectrum, the nigh-H-manga comedy My Balls. Though shackled by the letter of His own laws, He generally ensures that things work out for the best, and, in the end, never lets Kouta be tempted beyond what he can bear.
 * All the gods in Dragon Ball are good. Even Piccolo, the bad side of Kami-sama, the God of Earth, eventually turns good.
 * Superbook
 * Flying House
 * The Innocent: Although God is never outright mentioned, Angels and the like work with people executed for crimes they didn't commit in order to help put their souls to rest. These people are placed under strict (but completely understandable) rules such as (word-for-word) Thou Shalt Not Kill and work in order to help grant good people their last wishes.
 * Implied as of the recent chapters in Bleach. During the Big Bad's Villainous Breakdown, Urahara tells him that the King of Soul Society is the lynchpin that holds everything together, and without him everything would crumble. The fact that everything is still in order implies that the guy really does care about the world.
 * Heavily Implied in Tokyo Godfathers.
 * In Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt, God sends down helpful (if sometimes vague) clues for the protagonists as to where to go or what to do through little pieces of paper.

Comics
"Reporter: Father, there is raining of pizzas all over the world! What does this miracle mean? Has God gone crazy?
 * The Mighty Thor: Thanks to Hijacked by Jesus, Odin is often a stand-in for the Judeo-Christian God, especially when Thor is being Jesus WITH A HAMMER! And they're both always good.
 * Well it's not like Odin and Thor were bad in Norse Mythology.
 * Not bad? Thor was prone to smiting giants because he could, and he tried to murder Utgard-Loki in his sleep. Utgard-Loki had shown no hostility to the gods. In another legend, Thor was staying with a human family. He skinned his goats for a stew and then ordered the family not to crack the bones to suck marrow. When the family did, the parents begged Thor not to kill them all, and he relented only by taking the children into forced service. When a giant was about to win a bet to rebuild the walls of Asgard in a few months, Loki sabotaged the efforts to save the gods from having to pay out. Thor killed the giant when he protested that he had been cheated. Odin not only tricked a giant into a lethal contest of riddles for a lark, but he tricked mankind into all our ceaseless wars. Amongst Odin's favorite charms was one which let him date rape any woman he desired, overriding her free will. Neither Thor nor Odin helped Loki with the injuries he sustained in tricking the dwarves into giving the gods Thor's hammer Mjollner and many other priceless gifts, and this was when when they were quite close.
 * Hellboy: God destroyed the power of the rebellious angels responsible for creating the Ogdru Jahad and cast them down to Earth. There is also plenty of power in various relics the heroes use to fight against evil. In addition, the fact that Hellboy, a demon from hell, is a Catholic, should tell you all you need to know about how big and inclusive the God of Hellboy is.
 * In one strip by Quino, which also serves as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, pizzas start falling all over the world, much to the surprise of many as well as the delight of the poor and starving people:

Priest: No, son. What happens is that God makes no distinctions and he sends his help to everyone equally."

Film
""If it's hard to have faith in me, maybe it will help to know that I have faith in you.""
 * Raiders of the Lost Ark: Our heroes are captured by the big bad and all seems lost. And then, Nazis meet Ark of the Covenant, Ark of the Covenant, meet Nazis. Also includes the villain destroying power of the Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail.
 * One wonders why Indy needs to do anything; the various artifacts of doom seem perfectly capable of taking care of themselves...
 * Fridge Brilliance: the Nazis were all killed by a divine artifact belonging to what the Nazis most hated. You could say they got what was coming to them.
 * Which also makes this an example of Too Dumb to Live.
 * It's a Wonderful Life: A literal angel convinces George Bailey that the world would not be a better place if he never existed.
 * Maverick: Gambler Brett Maverick is on his steed, attached to a noose that will hang him when his horse moves. He asks God for another chance... and the branch breaks.
 * Bruce Almighty: The whole premise of the movie is Bruce thinking he can do a better job running the universe than God... and he's wrong.
 * The Prophecy: Unique in that the reason Gabriel has for leading the second rebellion against God is that He loved those weak monkeys, more than angels. When Gabriel is defeated, we see the evil, racist, genocidal soul of Hawthorne destroyed by divine light.
 * End of Days: Jericho, after a run and gun battle with Satan, ends his life and- and his reward is that this trope proves to be true. Having previously lost his faith after the death of his family, he asks God for the strength to finish the fight, and wins. He gets possessed as part of the bad guy's escape plan, but regains control just long enough to impale himself on a sword held by a fallen statue of Michael... and as his reward, he sees his family again as the credits start to roll.
 * O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Ulysses prays for a miracle when his death by hanging seems certain. A flood then sweeps in to save him. Subverted in that he immediately recants his new found 'faith'.
 * The Book of Eli Eli follows 'the voice' which leads him and protects him for thirty years.
 * The phrase "God is good", and its standard response "All the time", are uttered respectively
 * Year One: Resident butt monkey Oh asks God (if He exists) for a shot with his cave gal... and he gets it.
 * In Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (an offscreen) God helped the boys out in their quest to defeat the Evil Robot Thems.
 * The Prince of Egypt: God selects Moses to deliver his people from slavery. Red Sea parting ensues.
 * Granted, His sense of good and evil is a bit different.
 * The Ten Commandments: Same deal.
 * ...That actually happened in the Torah/Old Testament.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation posits a God who is not good. God chose to harden Pharaoh's heart. God chose to visit Ten Plagues rather than Ten Blessings on Egypt. God chose to punish those who worshiped the Golden Calf brutally rather than to show mercy. Many incidents in the Old Testament are fodder for attacks on the idea of a benevolent God. One could hardly blame the Egyptians for deciding that a God who would visit them with such cruel plagues then kill uncounted, defenseless children who had not enslaved His chosen people was a Complete Monster.
 * Mothra is a giant butterfly who is worshiped as a goddess on her island home. Oh, and she's also one of the few purely good monsters within the Godzilla franchise.
 * Likewise, there is King Seesar. A monster loosely based off of the Shisa of Okinawa folklore. In the 1974 film Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla he acts as a guardian deity who protects Japan from evil.
 * Also, the film Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack features not one but THREE monster gods who protect Japan from evil (IE: Baragon: the god of the earth, Mothra: the goddess of water, and Ghidorah: the god of the air). In the film, they are awakened in order to save Japan from Godzilla.
 * God in Monty Python and The Holy Grail would REALLY appreciate it if people would stop groveling every time he tries to talk to someone. Not to mention leaving useful things like the Holy Hand Grenade for the heroes to find.
 * Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter features the Son of Man fighting super villains and lesbian vampires.
 * The end of the supernatural Western Purgatory: "The Creator may be tough, but he ain't blind."
 * Oh, God! and its sequels.

Literature

 * The Silmarillion: The power of Morgoth gets so out of control in the first age elves, humans and dwarves have no choice but to plead before the Valar for their aid. They get it. Plus, in the Tolkien Apocalypse, Jesus stand-in Manwë gets medieval with Morgoth and his resurrected servants at Dagor Dagorlad.
 * Manwë is more of a St. Michael stand in, not Jesus. Technically speaking, the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place between the Great Flood(Akallabêth) and the birth of Christ.
 * Tolkien stated in a letter that the main characters of The Lord of the Rings are Sauron and God. The story is about how God defeats Sauron through His servants (ie, Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, etc.).
 * The Chronicles of Narnia: While the heroism of the main characters is not in vain, in the final book they fail to defeat the Calormenes and Narnia is destroyed. Aslan steps in when they fail, vanquishes the evil from Narnia and restores the world.
 * The Space Trilogy. While the Oyarsa may be considered the agents of God on Earth, humans, specifically Ransom, is chosen to be the agent of God on Venus to save it from its own fall into darkness. Then he beats up Satan.
 * The Robe: Jerkass Roman has his life changed around by a mysterious Robe.
 * Arabian Nights: You could keep a running tally of all the special powers, deliverances and interventions that happen throughout the various tales attributed to Allah directly or indirectly.
 * Dracula: Shape shifting immortal agent of darkness with the strength of thirty men? Holy relics, science and human courage are shown as sufficient to defeat it.
 * Paradise Lost: In the traditional interpretation, God knows man will fall prey to sin, but respects them enough to let their choices have consequences. Afterwards, He not only comes up with a cunning Plan to save mankind, but His Son/Proxy Jesus personally leads the army in heaven to crush Lucifer and his rebellion, which technically ties this trope with Kung Fu Jesus in a big Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * In Tanya Huff's novel Blood Price, the bad guy manages to get past the good guys' attempts to stop him and complete his demon-summoning ritual on Easter Sunday morning. God does not approve.
 * There's a degree of this with the Knights of the Cross in The Dresden Files. He rarely if ever acts in an overt fashion, but often times the Knights just happen to have a feeling they should be somewhere, coincidentally putting them in just the right place to save the day.
 * Not to mention Harry's direct line to an archangel whenever he's suffering a moral crisis.
 * In Changes, an Old Woman calls out, “Oh, God in Heaven, help us!”. He does.
 * Played straight in Special Circumstances, with the Supreme Being(s) of pretty much all of the religions followed by the members of the titular organization stepping in to help their mortal agents to defeat Evil.

Live Action Television

 * Battlestar Galactica: It is implied that astral projection Baltar and Six are agents of a higher power tasked.
 * You know It doesn't like that name...
 * Touched By an Angel plays this completely straight, although the original pilot script had a darker view.
 * Quantum Leap Sam believes at times that God, or a higher power, is guiding his journey to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
 * For a long time, it's largely an open question in Supernatural, whether God is good. Sam and Dean both have tendencies to doubt such a position, and to have faith in it. The Season Five finale, though, comes out largely in favor of God being good, and the major faction of angels, led by Michael may not actually represent his will.
 * Actually, in Supernatural, pre-S6 that is, God seemed more of a free-will-at-all-costs guy. A bystander, just writing it all down for future generations. He does state that He wanted everyone to realize that FAMILY is what its all about, not power, not good, not evil...family and love. And they do. So God DOES help them by NOT stepping in, knowing they would not need Him because Sam and Dean knew family was the most important thing, not power.
 * Post-S6...we'll see. It may be that Cas-God Is Evil now thanks to Real-God's free-will-at-all-costs policy or we'll have a Curbstomp Battle where the real God steps in to...well...you get the point.
 * Turns out
 * In Reaper God seems strangely absent and Satan able to pretty much do as he pleases. However, towards the end of the series evidence is presented that God is still very much in control and has a plan for making things work out,.
 * Stargate SG 1: features the Asgardians, Sufficiently Advanced Aliens who are mistaken as gods, but its symantics for the some people they visist. They protect less developed planets from the Gou'ald. The people of Cimmeria claim that "Our gods are great and powerful warriors but they are just and true to their word."

Tabletop Games

 * Deadlands has one of the most stunning and brilliant examples of this trope. It is explicitly stated that God Is Good, and there's a whole character class devoted to the concept, the Blessed. In Deadlands, it's noted that all religions have it correct- God is simply known by many names, it's still the same guy- and thus, all religions get Blessed, religious folk with holy powers. If they do anything evil, they lose their powers (and God gets pissed at them). The core rulebook for old Deadlands Blessed, Fire and Brimstone, is considered by many players to be the best single class sourcebook for the game, greatly expanding the options, flavor, and character of the Blessed, the setting itself, and basically being one of the most hopeful and uplifting books in an otherwise pretty grim series.
 * In fact, just to expand on the above- there are three types of Blessed powers, Miracles, Gifts, and Interventions. They are the only magic that works without a risk of backlash, because God protects them from the possible side-effects. In addition, the Interventions are just that- God Himself acting on this world. They also have awesome names, like Divine Backhand- which is just what it sounds like: a backhand slap from God. It knocks the target out but doesn't hurt them permanently in any way (though they'll feel like shit in the morning).
 * Also noted here is that the only sourcebook that usually gets mentioned in competition with it, Ghost Dancers, is also about religion- the religion of Native Americans, which also assumes that God Is Good (and has a lot of nature spirit back-up).
 * Warhammer 40000: Sure the Imperium is full of zealots who will kill you in the name of the Emperor. But the Emperor himself wasn't that bad a guy (except when he was, but there were still worse things, and his goals for humanity were good). His main goal in fact was to prevent humanity from going through the same thing that shattered the Eldar. Its only after he got put on life support and couldn't stop anything that his Empire got flanderized to what we know today.

Video Games
"... And the prayer is answered."
 * Tales of Eternia gives us Seyfert, who . His voice is even heard congratulating you in the ending. What a guy... erm... deity.
 * Also, Tales of the Abyss uses Lorelei as its God stand-in, but the parallels between it and Yulia and God and Jesus are pretty obvious. God is also shown to be a pretty awesome guy in this story, because
 * Arc Rise Fantasia makes you think that God Is Evil, given that there are some Sinister Ministers and Church Militants who are most definitely on the side of evil, not to mention the fact that . When you get to Eesa, well, the good news is that is very much Lawful Good.  It really drives home the fact that just because God is good doesn't mean that the whole deity schtick is easy.
 * Call of Juarez: A dying Reverend Ray asks God for one last chance to redeem himself by saving Billy and Molly.
 * Requiem Avenging Angel. The game can be summed up in one phrase, I kick arse for the Lord!
 * Guild Wars: The various gods do show up to help from time to time but are mostly aloof- which is finally explained in Nightfall with the note that they already gave the best of their gifts to mankind, so they've pretty much helped all that they can, and can't do much more. They even help ascend a human warrior to replace a fallen evil god at one point.
 * In Fire Emblem, the heroes of the lore were given Holy Weapons to fight whatever dark incarnation of the Dark Dragon they are fighting (Loptous, the Dragons during the Scouring, etc.) from the Light Dragon Naga. Only the Telius continent didnt have this.
 * Well,  was good, but kind of incompetent.   weren't really good or evil.
 * wasn't incompetent. The Beorc and the Laguz were just two tribes of complete dicks who didn't like each other, and technically speaking,
 * Except that's wrong.
 * Mortal Kombat: Raiden's job description is to destroy anyone who tries to harm Earthrealm.
 * Until Deception where he
 * God Hand: Gene gets the power of God to beat up Satan (Angra in the NA translation). It turns out rather well.
 * The Act Raiser series has one of the most Downer Ending in history because of this. In each game, you play as GOD. You save the world from uncountable demons, make your people happy by answering their prayers and building their cities, witness most of your loyal angels die in service to you, defeat the seven deadly sins, and crush Satan (Tanzra in the localized version). What is your reward?
 * The Five Gods of Tyria in Guild Wars are all good, even Grenth, the God of Death. If a "district" has the Favor Of The Gods, any player can kneel at a statue of one of the Gods and receive a blessing. Monk abilities are called Prayers; they're praying to Dwayna (and in some cases, Balthazar), for aid, and get it every time.
 * In Disgaea Hour of Darkness, angels and demons populate the game world, with both of them having good and evil members. Nonetheless, God is mysteriously absent for most of the game, even in Celestia. Those who believe in God seem to think Him as mostly benevolent, and some of the nobler demons even call out to God, though they're thought as weird and un-demonly for doing so. This all comes to a head in the bad endings, when a demon makes a desperate prayer...


 * Okami Lives and breathes this trope. As the physical manifestation of the sun goddess you spend your days restoring life to the world and answering prayers while smiting the forces of the underworld. Amaterasu becomes so beloved she recieves a massive praise powerup from those she's helped for the final showdown with the manefestation of evil, Yami. Even imps love her by the end of the game!
 * Final Fantasy Tactics is a dark game that only really gets darker as it goes on. There's a demonic invasion going on, in addition to a civil war that's tearing the country apart. And then, after Rafa's brother is killed and she's tearfully holding the body, the Zodiac Stone that the previous boss had held, one of a number of stones that seemed to be powering the demonic invasion, channels the power of Heaven for once instead of Hell, and pulls off a resurrection.
 * Also, in terms of gameplay mechanics, a higher Faith stat means a character's magic will be stronger (at the cost of taking more damage from it).
 * Blaz Blue's Taokaka gives us one as a Crowning Moment of Funny and/or Awesome. In one of her endings, she ends up catapulting through the higher levels of the Hierarchical City so she can get back to her home on the lower levels. Turns out she went straight through a bakery on the way, and food starts raining from the sky. Her response? "Nice going, God!" At first, this seems like Tao being Tao, but then Litchi mentions that it might actually be "divine punishment" since the bakers in question had been keeping away all the good food and selling the rotten stuff to their customers.
 * If the above is an indication of God's character in the Blaz Blue-verse, then it's entirely possible that Terumi's reasons for wanting to destroy the Master Unit: Amaterasu is because of its benevolence. Bear in mind that this guy is the embodiment of Chaotic Evil and For the Evulz.
 * In World of Warcraft  Of course as with all things to do with the Holy Light it's arguable as to whether it's actually the Light acting, or the person wielding it having a moment of absolute faith.
 * More Tirion and the Light: After having his powers stripped for protecting an orc (Eitrigg), he finds Eitrigg mortally wounded and prays to Light for help and finds that his powers were never stripped to begin with. Tirion's faith and pureness are just too powerful. Once an outcast and banished, he's now the leader of the Argent Crusade and revered as the greatest paladin who ever lived, by both factions. He even sees the good in Death Knight Darion Mograine and allies with him to stop Arthas. In many fans' eyes, Tirion is no longer mortal, but an Eternal servant of the Light. As the sentence below states...
 * "The Light does not abandon its champions." said by, basically Warcraft's version of, an Angel. Said Angel also mentions Paradise, leading players to believe there is some sort of Heaven in Warcraft. The Light, in the eyes of some players, is indeed God.
 * Elune prefers working behind the scenes and empowering Her priests and priestesses as proxies but is nonetheless a good example of this trope.
 * In Devil Survivor,
 * He also That one sort of backfired, but God's intentions (if we take Remiel's word for it) were good.
 * This seems to be deconstructed in Final Fantasy XIII-2. . To put it lightly, this may be SE's darkest game yet.
 * In stark contrast to how most deities are portrayed in the series, Cosmos genuinely tries her best to defeat overwhelming evil and pulls off not one but two Heroic Sacrifice.

Web Comics

 * Tales of the Questor seems to hold this view
 * In Sinfest, God is a Jerk With A Heart of Gold God. He's an immature prankster, to be certain, but He honestly has his creations' welfare in mind (as shown by his disgust for Seymour.).

Western Animation

 * Zeus and Hera in Disney's Hercules. This is in sharp contrast to the original mythology.
 * God, the Devil and Bob
 * Drawn Together: Despite being a Dead Baby Comedy show, in Drawn Together, God is portrayed as a pretty nice guy at the end of the episode 3, just after Princess Clara says that Xandir will go to hell for being gay, and then
 * In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Princess Celestia raises the sun each morning, bringing warmth and light to Equestria. She is also a kind motherly figure to her subjects, who are in complete awe of her. When the ponies do something they fear will upset her, she laughs it off with a gentle chastise, at worst.