When God allows pain, his desire is never to hurt you. Sometimes, it’s to prune you and make you more fruitful. It might be to humble you, or to discipline you, or to equip you to comfort others.

Sometimes, God just wants to get your attention. Maybe the Lord has already offered milder reminders and rebukes, and you have kept ignoring them. Now he’s left with no alternative but to discipline you. God loves you too much to allow to let you stay on your current flight path. He’s been calling out, “Mayday, Mayday. Abort, Abort. Don’t keep going this way!” But you turned of the warning alarm.

Now God is disciplining you. His discipline is not to hurt you, but as the Good Shepherd, he’s using his staff to push you back on the straight and narrow.

Hebrews 12:5–6 says, “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

If you ever realize you have some unconfessed sin and are under God’s discipline, what should you do? Seek forgiveness and restoration by following the example of the psalmist. Psalm 130:7 says, “For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.“

Not all pain is due to personal sin. It might simply be to lift our eyes off ourselves and upward, or to give us grace to better sympathize with others. Pain also has a purifying effect in our own lives, challenging us to break bad habits, rid ourselves of idolatry, and offer heartfelt repentance.

I talk more about this in my sermon, “Purpose in Pain,” which I preached several months ago at Calvary Church. In this lesson, we learn…

• Some of the reasons God allows us to suffer
• Two judges you’ve probably never heard of
• God disciplines us to grow us
• Warning against idols of the heart

Here’s the audio, now available on the podcast:

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